ii niFi lil w aw w iiiii iii i ii ii iW iiiilw ftiii Mli M ^lW MW Mia a ii ii ii i idt w wij w iwwwnTOiin^^ ^:^'Z'^' THE KNICKERBOC]:::i:.R LITERATURE SE.. ■J LINGO (.'-■ • (I ,.'v. . • j ■- .*■'<«,. ^^, ^-■a.iJ»«rVT*^H!M-'»*.(.-tMi"*~''***^ ,!i]i-— v^ /< f ■'.!■ ■ ■•;,■ ;^ •"•v•' \. i ■.HtlHUlPMOi . ^"^ 'U„..„ ..♦0-> •"■• J B WM» l ;>lt; il l)» l ll » l»»||l WWI I>II M ) n ilWIMWI lrt MI>nilri::i-':':i'; ■. 'V .■ m ■ < -.' '■■ .,u:.l!l F!s®P!?c«rT5^*'m'r^^i;^;i«*v]?«»~Mi LINCOLN ROOM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY MEMORIAL the Class of 1901 founded by HARLAN HOYT HORNER and HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER Ube 1knickerl)oc??er Xtterature Series Edited by Frank Lincoln Olmsted THE FIRST ISSUES ARE : I. — Episodes from the Winning of the West. By Theodore Roosevelt. II. — Abraham Lincoln. By Noah Brooks, III. — Astoria, and Adventures of Captain Bonneville. By Washington Irving. IV. — The Last of the Mohicans. By James Fenimore Cooper. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON Ubc Ikntcherbocfter literature Series EDITED BY rranK Lir\colr\ Olmsted ABRAHAM LINCOLN ABRAHAM LINCOLN. From a drawing from life by F. B. Carpenter. Abraham Lincoln His Youth anc Karly Maniood With a Brief Account of His Later Life By Noah Brooks Author of " The Boy Emigrants," " The Fairport Nine," "American Statesmen," etc. 'Sf G. P. Putnam's Sons New York and London ^ht MnitkErbocIur IBxtss I90I -^ Copyright by G. P. Putnam's Sons 1888 Copyright, 1894 BY G. P. Putnam's Sons Copyright, 1901 BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS Ube "Rnlcftcrbochet Pveee, flew ^ot^ •t-C-tf-C-vi-Wi^ r^-. O CAPTAIN ! MY CAPTAIN ! O Captain ! my Captain ! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is well, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring. But O heart ! heart ! heart ! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. O Captain ! my Captain ! rise up and hear the bells ; Rise up — for you the flag is flung — for you the bugle trills, For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths — for you the shores a-crowding, For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning ; Here Captain ! dear father ! This arm beneath your head ! It is some dream that on the deck You've fallen cold and dead. My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse, no will, The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done. From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won. Bxult O shores, and ring O bells ! But I with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. — Whitman. iii M^ EDITOR'S PREFACE R. BROOKS'S story of the life of Abraham Lin- coln is a distinct addition to our knowledge of the man and of the scenes through which he passed in becoming an uplifter of the human race. Mr. Brooks knew Lincoln well in Illinois, as well as later in Wash- ington. He was himself a pioneer during some of the most stirring times on the border, and, in consequence, he has written in unusual sympathy with the difl&culties and triumphs of border life. In the crude surroundings that then were the lot of all, the story of Lincoln's youth and early manhood possesses a peculiar interest. In such a tale we catch gleams of a true nature tucked away in the lank form and homespun, and we watch a character grow clear- outlined through the power of a strong moral nature. The wilderness afforded splendid tests of manly quali- ties, and kept the weak at bay. The axe, the maul, and the grubbing-hoe answered only to the quick eye and the sinewy frame. Abraham Lincoln, strong- hearted and true, swung, split, and dug in *' the land of full-grown men ' ' ; and he emerged thence a leader among men. His experiences were singularly varied and dramatic; yet, in the main, they were typical of unnamed thou- sands of our fellows who wrote on the broad West the strongest characteristics of our race. F. L. O. Pine Lodge, December i, 1900. PREFACE IN writing this brief biography, I have been moved by a desire to give to the present generation, who will never know aught of Abraham I^incoln but what is traditional, a lifelike picture of the man as many men knew him. To do this, it has been necessary to paint in a background of the history of the times in which he lived, and to place the illustrious subject in his true relation to the events in which he was so large a participant. It was my good fortune to know Lincoln with some degree of intimacy, our acquaintance beginning with the Fremont campaign of 1856, when I was a resident of Illinois, and continuing through the Lincoln-Douglas canvass, two years later. That relation became more intimate and confidential when, in 1862, I met Lincoln in Washington and saw him almost daily until his tragical death. Many things relating to his early life, herein set down, were derived from his own lips, often during hours of secluded companionship. The simplest truth is always best ; and the simpler and more direct the biographical sketch of Abraham Lincoln, the more deeply will his image be impressed upon the heart of that * ' common people ' ' whom he loved so well and of whom he was the noblest repre- sentative. In this book it has been the author's aim to present a definite and authoritative likeness of the man whose name is now enrolled highest among the types of our National ideals. Noah Brooks. vn CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. — ThK lylNCOI^N ANCKSTRY I II.— The Boyhood of Lincoi,n .... 9 III. — Young Manhood 18 IV.— The L1NC01.NS IN Ii,i;iNois .... 30 V. — A Pl,UNGE INTO POI^ITICS 37 VI.— The Young Poi^itician ..... 46 VII.— Winning his Way 60 VIII.— The Rising PouTician 68 IX.— IviNcoi,N THE Lawyer 84 X. — The Great Awablening . . . . .90 XI.— The Kansas Struggi^e 98 XII. — Lincoln and Dougi^as 103 XIII.— After a Great Struggi^e . . . .117 XIV.— Bisected to the Presidency . . . .125 XV.— From SPRiNGFiEiyD To Washington . . 135 XVI.— IvIncoi*< LINCOLN'S EARLY HOME IN HARDIN COUNTY, KENTUCKY. His father built this cabin, and moved into it when Abraham was an infant, and resided there until the boy was seven years of age, when he removed to Indiana. The Lincoln Ancestry 5 his school three months. So rare were opportunities for going to school in those days, that lyincoln never forgot the lessons he learned of Caleb Hazel and the pleasure that he felt in that great event of his life — going to school. In those primitive times, preaching was usually had under the trees or in the cabins of those few who were so fortunate as to have a bigger roof than most of their neighbors. lyincoln w^as a full-grown lad, when he first saw a church ; and it was only from the lips of wandering preachers that he heard the words of Christ- ian warning and advice. At long intervals, Parson Elkin, a Baptist preacher, took his way through the region in which the lyincolns lived, and young Abra- ham, fascinated by hearing long discourses fall from the lips of the speaker, apparently without any preparation, never failed to attend on his simple services. The boy got his first notion of public speaking from this itin- erant preacher, and, years afterwards, he referred to the preacher as the most wonderful man known to his boyish experience. Thomas Lincoln wearied of his Kentucky home. There was great trouble in getting land titles ; even Daniel Boone, the pioneer and surveyor of the land, upon whom had been conferred a great grant, was shorn of much of his lawful property, and a cloud was laid on nearly every man's right to his own homestead. But the real cause of his hankering after a new home was probably that he saw something better far ahead. The tales of wonderfully rich soil, abundant game, fine timber, and rich pasturage that came to Kentucky from Indiana were just like the rosy reports of the riches and attractions of Kentucky that had enticed the elder Lincolns from their home in Virginia years before. 6 Abraham Lincoln So Thomas resolved to * ' pull up stakes ' ' and move on, still to the westward. Thomas found a newcomer who was willing to take his partly improved farm and log cabin for ten barrels of whiskey and twenty dollars in cash. This repre- sented three hundred dollars in value, and was the price that he had set upon his homestead. Whiskey made from corn was, in those daj^s, one of the readiest forms of currency in the trading and barter continually going on among the settlers ; and, even where drunken- ness was almost unknown, the fiery spirit was regarded as a perfectl}^ legitimate article of daily use and a sub- stitute for money in trade. Thomas Lincoln built a flatboat, w^hich he loaded with his ten barrels of whiskey and the heavier articles of household furniture. Then, pushing off alone, he floated safely down to the Ohio. Here he met with a great disaster. Caught between eddying currents, and entangled in the snags and ' ' sawyers ' ' that beset the stream, his frail craft was upset and much of his stuff was lost. With assistance, he righted the boat, and, with what had been saved from the wreck, he landed at Thompson's Ferry, found an ox-cart to transport his slender stock of valuables into the forest, and finally piled them in an oak-opening in Spencer County, Indiana, about eighteen miles from the river. Left at home in their dismantled cabin, w^ith a scanty suppl}^ of provisions, the mother and little ones made the most of their time. The tw^o children attended Caleb Hazel's school, but Abraham found time to snare game for the family dinner-pot, and, in an emergency, the house-mother could knock over a deer at long range. One bed-ticking filled with dried forest leaves and husks sufficed for their rest at night, and bright The Lincoln Ancestry 7 and early in the morning the future President was out in the nipping autumn air, chopping wood for the day's fire. As the time drew near for the father's re- turn, Mrs. Lincoln, leading her living boy, paid her last visit to the grave of the little one whom she had lost in infancy. And his sad mother's prayers and tears by the side of the unmarked mound in the wilder- ness made an impression on the mind of the lad that time never effaced. But when Thomas Lincoln returned to his small brood, it was not with any boastfulness. He had met with what was to them a great loss. Much of their meagre stock of household stuff and farming tools was at the bottom of the Ohio River. Leaving the rescued fragments in care of a friendl}^ settler, he had made a bee-line for the old Kentucky home ; and here he was, with a flattering report of the richness of the land to which they were bound. It was a long journey that was before them. Pro- curing two horses and loading them with the household stuff and wardrobe of the family, Thomas Lincoln, wife, and two children took up their line of march for the new home in Indiana. At night they slept on the fragrant pine twigs ; and by day they plodded their way toward the Ohio River. They were like true soldiers of fortune, subsisting on the country through which they marched. Here and there, it was needful to clear their way through tangled thickets, and now and again they came to streams that must be forded or swam. By all sorts of expedients, the little family contrived to get on from day to day, occupying a week in this transit from one home to another. The nights were cool but pleasant. No rain fell on them in the way, and after a week of free and easy life in the woods, 8 Abraham Lincoln they came to the bank of the river. When they looked over into the promised land, they saw nothing but forest, almost trackless forest, stretching far up and down the stream. All was silent save for the ripplings of the water and the occasional note of some wandering bird. CHAPTER II THE BOYHOOD OF I,INCOI,N PICKING up their property left in charge of one of the scattered settlers by Thomas lyincoln on his first visit, the family pushed on into the wilderness, where on a grassy knoll in the heart of the untrodden forest, they fixed upon the site of their future dwelling- place. A slight hunter's camp was all that could be built to shelter the new settlers during their first win- ter in the woods of southern Indiana. The open front of this '* half-faced camp " was partially screened with *' pelts," as the half-dressed skins of wild animals were called. A fireplace of sticks and clay, with a chimney of the same materials, occupied one corner of the hut. Here the Lincolns spent their first winter in the new State of Indiana. Abraham was now in his eighth year, tall, ungainly, fast-growing, long-legged, and clad in the garb of the frontier. He wore a shirt of linsey-woolsey, a fabric homespun of mixed cotton and wool, and dyed with colors obtained from the roots and barks of the forest. According to his own statement, he never wore stock- ings until he was " a young man grown." His feet were covered with rough cowhide shoes, but oftener with moccasins fashioned deftly by his mother's hands. Deerskin breeches and a hunting-shirt of the same 9 lo Abraham Lincoln material completed his outfit, except for the coon-skin cap that adorned his shaggy head, the tail of the animal hanging down behind, at once an ornament and a convenient handle when occasion required. But the lad did not take kindly to hunting. Once, as he used to tell of himself, while yet a child, he caught a glimpse of a flock of wild turkeys feeding near the camp, and, venturously taking down his father's rifle from its pegs on the wall, he took aim through a chink in the cabin and killed a noble bird. It was his first shot at a living thing, and he never forgot the mingled pain and pleasure that it brought — pain because he dreaded to take life, and pleasure be- cause he had brought down his game. The woods swarmed with bears, deer, woodchucks, raccoon, wild turkeys, and other creatures, furry or feathered, useful for the table or for furnishing forth the scanty wardrobe of the settlers. None need starve so long as snares and ammunition were handy for the hunter and trapper. But it was a hard life, hard for children, and hardest of all for women. No neighbor dropped in for a few minutes' friendly gossip, with the small news of the day. Only as a faint echo from out another world came the news of domestic politics, foreign complications, and national afiairs. James Madison was President of the United States, and Con- gress and the country were stirred greatly over the admission of Missouri, the extension of slavery west- ward of the Mississippi River, and other matters of great moment then and thereafter. It was in the autumn of 1816 that the lyincolns took up their abode in the wilds of Indiana. In February of the following year, Thomas Lincoln, with the slight assistance of little Abe, felled the logs needed for a Q. < O O o < I U. _l < I 6 o o o c I 00 IH bO c c The Boyhood of Lincoln ii substantial cabin. These were cut to the proper lengths, notched near the ends so as to fit into each other when laid up ; and then the neighbors from far and near were summoned to the " raisin'," which was an event in those days for much rude jollity and cordial good-fellowship. A raising was an occasion for merry- making as well as for hard work ; and these opportuni- ties for social gatherings, few as they were, were enjoyed by young and old. The helpful settlers *' snaked " the logs out of the woods, fitted the sills in their places, rolled the other logs up by means of various rude con- trivances, and before nightfall had in shape the four walls of the log cabin, with the gables fixed in position and poles fastened on with wooden pins to serve as rafters, and even some progress was made in the way of covering the roof. The floor of this primitive habitation was the solid ground, pounded hard. The cracks between the bark- covered logs were " chinked " with thin strips of wood split from the plentiful timber. Similar labor ' ' rived " or split the '* shakes " with which the roof was covered, and from which the swinging door was made. Later on, huge slabs of wood split from oak and hickory logs and known as " puncheons" were laid on floor joists of logs and were loosely pinned in place by long wooden pegs. In one corner of the cabin, two of its sides formed by the walls thereof, was built the bedstead of the father and mother. Only one leg was needed, and this was driven down into the ground, a forked top giving a chance to fit in the cross-pieces that served for foot and side of this simple bit of furniture. From these to the logs at the side and head of the bedstead were laid split " shakes," and sometimes thongs of deerskin 12 Abraham Lincoln were laced back and forth after the fashion of bedcord- ing. On this was placed the mattress, filled with dried leaves, corn-husks, or whatever came handy. The chil- dren's bed, a smaller contrivance, was sometimes fixed in another corner ; but when the wintry wind whistled around the cabin and the dry snow sifted through the cracks, the little ones stole over to the parental bed for warmth. In making all these preparations for home-life under their own roof, little Abe took an active part. He early learned the use of the axe, the maul, and the wedge. With the *' froe," a tool something like a long wedge with a wooden handle, he was taught to *' rive " the shingle from the slab ; and with maul and wedges — a highly prized possession — he mastered the art of splitting rails and billets of wood for building purposes. In labors like these, the lad hardened his sinews, toughened his hands, and imbibed a knowledge of woodcraft and the practical uses of every variety of timber. He knew every tree, bush, and shrub by its foliage and bark, as far as he could see it. The mys- terious juices that gave healing to wounds and bruises, the roots that held medicinal virtues in their sap, and the uses to which every sort of woody fibre was best adapted were all familiar to him. It was impossible that a boy so imaginative and full of fancy, as young Abe certainly was, should grow up in these forests and shades without imbibing some " queer notions " about men and things. Even to the most practical of mankind, there is an awesome solitude in the unexplored forest wilderness ; and the sighing of winds, the roar of night-prowling animals, the hol- low murmur of distant streams, and the indescribable hum that goes up continually from the hidden life of The Boyhood of Lincoln 13 the forest live ever after in the memory of those who have spent much of their childhood in scenes like these. The brooding lad took in many a lesson which could not be expressed in words, and never to the latest day of his life forgot the traditions and the scenery of the wilderness, never lost the lesson of God's greatness and man's insignificance. It was during their first year in Indiana, and when Abraham was in his tenth year, that a mysterious dis- ease called "the milk-sick" appeared in the region. Exactly what " the milk-sick " was nobody nowadays seems to know. No physician acknowledges any such form of sickness ; but there are traditions of it yet extant in the Western States, and Mr. lyincoln, later in life, described it as resembling a quick consumption. Cattle as well as human beings were destroyed by it, and in the far-off wilderness it was not then uncommon to find an entire household prostrated with the disease, while flocks and herds were dying uncared for. It was a sad and gloomy time all through southern Indiana and Kentucky when '* the milk-sick " raged. In the preceding autumn, Mrs. Betsy Sparrow and her husband and her little nephew, Dennis Hanks, had followed the Lincolns into Indiana and were settled not far away in a half-faced camp. Dennis Hanks was Abraham's playmate and distant cousin, for Mrs. Sparrow was Nancy lyincoln's aunt. The Sparrows, man and wife, were taken down with ' ' the milk-sick ' ' and were removed to the I^incoln cabin for better at- tendance. Soon Abraham's mother was also stricken, and poor Thomas Lincoln had his hands full. Mr. and Mrs. Sparrow died first, and were buried on a little knoll in the forest within sight of the cabin. On the 5th of October, a few days later, Nancy lyincoln 14 Abraham Lincoln died ; and she too was buried in the forest, under the shade of a spreading and majestic sycamore. When the wayworn form of the mother was lowered into the grave, enclosed in the rude wood shaped by the hands of Thomas Lincoln, little Abraham Lincoln, sitting alone until the shadows grew deep and dark in the forest and the sound of night-birds began to echo through the dim aisles, wept his first bitter tears. Long after, when the spot where she was buried ' had been covered by the wreck of the forest and almost hidden, her son was wont to say, with tear-dimmed eyes, * ' All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." It was the custom of those days and of that country to have a funeral sermon preached by way of memorial, any time within the year following the death of a per- son. So, as soon as the good mother was buried, Abraham Lincoln wrote what he used to say was his first letter, and addressed it to Parson Elkin, the Ken- tucky Baptist preacher who had sometimes tarried with the Lincolns in their humble home in Kentucky. It was a great favor to ask of the good man ; but in due time Abraham received an answer to his letter, and the parson promised to come when his calls of duty led him near the Indiana line. Early in the following summer, when the trees were greenest, the preacher came on his errand of kindness. It was a bright and sunny Sabbath morning when, due notice having been sent through all the region, men, ' A stone has been placed over the site of the grave by Mr. P. E. Studebacker of South Bend, Indiana. The stone bears the following inscription: " Nancy Hanks Lincoln, died Octo- ber 5th, A.D. 1818, aged 35 years. Erected by a friend of her martyred son, 1879." The Boyhood of Lincoln 15 women, and children gathered from far and near to hear the funeral sermon of Nancy lyincoln. There were the hardy forest rangers ; there were the farmers and their families, two hundred of them, all told, some on foot and some on horseback and others drawn in ox- carts. All were intent on the great event of the season — the preaching of Nancy Lincoln's funeral sermon. The waiting congregation was grouped around on * ' down trees, ' ' stumps, and knots of bunch-grass, or on wagon-tongues, waiting for the coming of the little procession. The preacher led the way from the lyin- coln cabin, followed by Thomas lyincoln, his son Abra- ham, his daughter Sarah, and little Dennis Hanks, now a member of the Lincoln household. Tears shone on the sun-browned cheeks of the silent settlers as the good preacher told of the virtues and the patiently borne sufferings and sorrows of the departed mother of Abraham Lincoln. And every head was bowed in reverential solemnity as he lifted up his voice in prayer for the motherless children and the widowed man. To Abraham, listening as he did to the last words that should be said over the grave of his mother, this was a scene never to be forgotten. We can imagine how unkempt and ragged the three became, left almost wholly to themselves. Sarah, scarcely twelve years old, was the housekeeper. Abe, two years younger, came next, and Dennis Hanks was eighteen months younger than he. The father had a cheerful temper, and he hoped that the good Lord would send them help, somehow and some day, but how and when, he never stopped to think. But he knew better than Sarah did how to mix an ash-cake of corn-meal. So, with milk from the cow and an oc- casional slab of * * side-meat, ' ' or smoked side of pork, 1 6 Abraham Lincoln the family was never long hungry. It was hard fare ; but a boy nourished himself on that and lived to be President. Boys of the present age, turning over languidly the piles of books at their command, beautiful, entertaining, instructive, and fascinating, gay with binding and pictures, would stand aghast at the slimness of the stock that made Abraham lyincoln's heart glad. The first books he read were the Bible, ^sop's Fables, and The Pilgrim'' s Progress. He thought himself the most fortunate boy in the country, and such good use did he make of these standard works that he could repeat from memory whole chapters of the Bible, many of the most striking passages of Bunyan's immortal book, and every one of the fables of ^sop. He early took to the study of the lives and characters of eminent men, and a life of Henry Clay which his mother had managed to buy for him was one of his choicest treasures. Hearing of a Life of Washingto7i, written by Weems, young Lincoln went in pursuit of it, and joyfully carried it home in the bosom of his hunting-shirt. Reading this by the light of a " tallow- dip " until the feeble thing had burned down to its end, Abraham tucked the precious volume into a chink in the log wall of the cabin and went to sleep. A driv- ing storm in the night had soaked the book through and through and ruined it, when the eager boy sought for it in the early morning light. It was a borrowed book, and honest Abe was in despair over its destruc- tion in his hands. With a heavy heart he took it back to its owner, offering to do any thing that Mr. Crawford thought fair and just. A settlement was made, young Abe covenanting to pull ** fodder" for three days, by way of settlement. The Boyhood of Lincoln 17 " And does that pay for the book, or for the damage done to it ? " asked the shrewd boy, taking his first lessons in worldly wisdom. " Wal, I allow," said the kindly owner of the pre- cious book, ** that it won't be much account to me or anybody else now, and the bargain is that you pull fodder three days, and the book is yours." This was the first book that Abraham Lincoln earned and paid for ; discolored and blistered though it was, it was to him of value incalculable. And wheresoever the story of Abraham Lincoln's life shall be told, this account of his first precious possession shall be also narrated for a memorial of him. Years after, standing near the battle-ground of Trenton, and recalling the pages of the book hidden in the crevices of the log cabin in the Indiana wilder- ness, he said: *' I remember all the accounts there given of the battle-fields and the struggles for the lib- erties of the country, and none fixed themselves so deeply as the struggle here at Trenton, New Jersey. I recollect thinking then, boy even though I was, that there must have been something more than common that those men struggled for. ' ' It is an odd fact that may as well be recorded here, that Lincoln, as boy and man, almost invariably read aloud. When he studied, it helped him, he said, to fix in his mind the matter in hand, if, while it passed be- fore his eyes, he heard his own voice repeating it. CHAPTER III YOUNG MANHOOD IN the autumn of 1819, Thomas Lincoln went off somewhere into Kentucky, leaving the children to take care of themselves. What he went for, and where he went, the youngsters never thought of asking. But in December, earl}^ one morning, they heard a loud halloo from the edge of the forest ; and, dashing to the door, they beheld the amazing sight of the returning traveller perched in a four-horse wagon, a pretty-look- ing woman by his side, and a stranger driving the spanking team. Was it a miracle ? Thomas had re- turned with a stepmother for his little ones. He had married, in Klizabethtown, Kentucky, Mrs. Sally Johnston, formerly Miss Sally Bush. She had been known to the lad in Kentucky ; and now that she had come to be the new mother to Abe and his sister, they were glad to see her. The gallant four-horse team was the property of Ralph Krume, who had married Sally Johnston's sister; and in the wagon was stored what seemed to these children of the wilderness a gorgeous array of house- keeping things. There were tables and chairs, a bureau with real drawers that pulled out and disclosed a stock of clothing, crockery, bedding, knives and forks, and numerous things that to people nowadays are thought 18 Young Manhood 19 to be among the necessaries of life. By what magic Thomas Lincoln had persuaded this thrifty and ** fore- handed ' ' widow to leave her home in Kentucky and migrate to the comfortless wilderness of Indiana, we can only guess. But Thomas was of a genial and even jovial disposition, and he had allured the good woman to come and save his motherless bairns from utter destitution and neglect. The new Mrs. Lincoln, if she was disappointed in the home she found in Indiana, never showed her dis- appointment to her stepchildren. She took hold of the duties and labors of the day with a cheerful readiness that was long and gratefully remembered by her step- son, at least. They were good friends at once. Of him she said, years after, ' ' He never gave me a cross word or look, and never refused, in fact or appearance, to do anything I requested of him." Of her he said, '* She was a noble woman, affectionate, good, and kind, rather above the average woman, as I remember women in those days." Mrs. Lincoln brought with her three children by her first marriage, John, Sarah, and Matilda Johnston, whose ages were not far from those of the three chil- dren found in the Lincoln homestead. The log cabin was full to overflowing. The three boys, Abraham Lincoln, John Johnston, and Dennis Hanks, were sent to the loft over the cabin to sleep. They climbed up a rude ladder built against the inner side of the log house ; and their bed, a mere sack of dry corn-husks, was so narrow that when one turned over all three turned. Nevertheless, there was an abundance of covering for the children. The new mother had at once insisted that the open- ings in the cabin should be filled with glass and sashes 20 Abraham Lincoln instead of loosely hung sheets of muslin. The rickety frame that had served as a door, with its clumsy wooden hasp, was taken away, and * ' a battened door ' ' of matched boards, with a wooden latch of domestic make, replaced it. Mats of deerskin were put down on the puncheon floor, and an aspect of comfort, even luxury, was spread around. It seems to have been an har- monious household. If there were any family jars, history makes no mention of them. And we must re- member that that history has come down to us in the reports of two of those who were most interested in the household, Abraham Lincoln and his stepmother. About this time, young Abe made the acquaintance of a new source of pleasure, James Fenimore Cooper's " Leather-Stocking Tales." Over these he hung with rapturous delight. He had seen something of the fast- receding Indian of the American forests ; and he had heard, many a time, of his father's thrilling escape from the red man's clutches, and of his grandfather's cruel death in the Kentucky ' ' clearing ' ' ; and when he withdrew his fascinated attention from the vivid pages of Cooper's novels, he almost expected to see the painted savages lurking in the outskirts of the forest so near at hand. Another book, borrowed from one of the few and distant neighbors, was Burns's Poems, a thick and chunky volume, as he afterwards described it, bound in leather and printed in very small type. This book he kept long enough to commit to memory almost all its contents. And ever after, to the day of his death, some of the familiar lines of the Scottish poet were as ready on his lips as those of Shakespeare, the only poet who was, in Lincoln's opinion, greater than Robert Burns. His stepmother said of him : ' ' He read everything u 9 CO UJ oc II. Ill I H >- > o 3 <0 Young Manhood 21 he could lay his hands on, and when he came across a passage that struck him, he would write it down on boards, if he had no paper, and keep it by him until he could get paper. Then he would copy it, look at it, commit it to memory, and repeat it." Thus from books that he did not own and could not keep, he collected a great many things of the utmost value to him. But although young I^incoln devoured books with a hunger that was almost pathetic, and sorely tried his eyes with study by the light of blazing pine-knots on the hearth, he was no milksop, no weakly bookworm. He had learned the use of tools ; he could swing the maul, and could chip out " shakes " and shingles, lay open rails, and handle logs as well as most men. Al- though not a quarrelsome boy, he could throw any of his weight and years in the neighborhood ; and far and near *' Abe Lincoln " was early known as a capi- tal wrestler and a tough champion at every game of muscular skill. School and its coveted facilities for getting knowledge was now within reach. Hazel Dorsey was the name of the new schoolmaster on Little Pigeon Creek, a mile and a half from the Lincoln homestead ; and thither was sent the brood of young ones belonging to the Lin- coln family. These backwoods children had the un- usual luxury of going all together to a genuine school. True the schoolhouse was built of logs ; but all the youngsters of the school came from log cabins ; and even the new meeting-house, which was an imposing affair for those woods, was log-built up to the gables, and thence finished out with the first sawn lumber ever used to any considerable extent in the region. Young Abraham made the most of his opportunities, 2 2 Abraham Lincoln and when he found the daj^s too short for his school studies and his tasks about the farm, he sat up by the fire of " lightwood " late into the night. Following the plough, or whirling the might}^ maul, he pondered deeply the lessons that he had learned at school and from the few books at his command. As his mental vision widened, there was nothing so far out of the knowledge of those about him that he could not take it up. Algebra, Euclid, Latin, came later on in life ; but even in his early youth, hearing of these, he re- solved to master them as soon as he could get the needed books. Through all the wide neighborhood, Abe Lincoln was known as an honest, laborious, and helpful lad. Coming home one night, when the early winter frosts were sharp and nipping, he and a comrade found by the roadside the horse of one of the settlers who was a notorious drunkard. There had been a house-raising in the vicinity, and the rider, overcome with the strong drink too common on those semi-festive occasions, had probably fallen off and been left by his steed, while passing through the woods. Young Lincoln was for hunting up the missing man. " Oh, come along home," said his companion ; '* what business is it of yours if he does get lost ? ' ' '' But he will freeze to death, if he is left on the trail this cold night." The kind-hearted young fellow found the man and took him, all unconscious as he was, on his own stal- wart back, and actually carried him eighty rods to the nearest house, where, after sending word to his father that he must stay out all night, he sat by the half-frozeu man and brought him back to consciousness. Before he was seventeen years old, he attended court Young Manhood 23 in Boonville, the county-seat of Warrick, where a man was on trial for murder. It was his first look into what seemed to him the great world outside the wilderness. An accident led him into the vicinity, and, hearing that one of the famous Breckinridges of Kentucky was to speak for the defence, he went on to Boonville, and, open-mouthed with wonder, heard the first great speech of his life. When the arguments were over and the case had gone to the jury, the youth, his face shining with honest enthusiasm, held out his brown hand to the well-dressed lawyer, and told him how much he had enjoyed his wonderful speech. The aristocratic Breckinridge stared with surprise at the intrusive stranger, and haughtily brushed by him. This was not the boy's first lesson in social distinctions, but it was his first lesson in oratory ; and he was just as grateful to Breckinridge as he would have been if the great man had been as gracious then as he was years after, when he was reminded by the President, in Washington, of an incident in Boonville which Breckin- ridge had forgotten but Lincoln could not forget. From that time, young Lincoln practised speech- making. He took up any topic that happened to be uppermost in the rural neighborhood — a question of roads or trails, the school-tax, a bounty on wolves or bears ; or he got up mock trials, arraigned imaginary culprits, and himself acted as prosecuting attorney, counsel for the defendant, judge, and foreman of the jury, making their appropriate addresses in due course. He threw himself into these debates with so much ardor that his father was obliged to interfere and for- bid the speeches during hours for work. The old man grumbled, " When Abe begins to speak, all hands flock to hear him." 24 Abraham Lincoln One notable thing about this young man was that when he began to study an5^thing, he was not satisfied until he had got to the bottom of it. He went to the roots of things. He wrote and re-wrote all that he wanted to commit to memory. He could not give up any difficult problem. He kept at it until he had mas- tered it ; and in a community that was pretty dark in all matters of book-learning he seldom had any help outside of his book. He found time, now and again, of an evening, to lounge with the other 5^oung fellows in the country store at the cross-roads, and, beardless youngster though he was, he delighted the rude back- woodsmen and settlers with his homely wit and wisdom. In that benighted region he was accounted as being deeply learned. Great things were prophesied of the lad. Never neglecting any task on the farm, never shirk- ing any duty however unwelcome, j^oung Lincoln studied almost incessantly. Dennis Hanks said of him, " He was always reading, writing, cyphering, and writing poetry." There is in existence a manu- script book of his, under the title of '*Book of Examples in Arithmetic." One of the pages, dated March i, 1826, is headed " Discount," and is divided as follows : '* A Definition of Discount," *' Rules for its Computa- tion," and " Proofs and Various Examples," all worked out in neat and correct figures. Following this is *' Interest on Money." And all this was carefully kept for ready reference by the boy who was busily studying how to master every thing he attempted. Abraham Lincoln learned to be thorough when he was building his character. It was about this time, when he was eighteen years old, that he conceived the mighty plan of building a T^ijr Q^o.>^^^^ .^^....^^^^^/^'^-^y^ ^u. ^--sasfii toksk- ^%r i^ ^ ST' EXAMPI^iiS IN ARITHMETIC 2$ 26 Abraham Lincoln boat and taking down the river to the nearest trading- post some of the products of the home farm. He had had furtive glimpses of the busy life outside the woods of southern Indiana, and he longed for a closer look at it. The little craft was built, chiefly by his own hands, and was loaded with bacon, " garden truck," and such odds and ends as were thought available for market. Of this short voyage into the world of busy men, the chief incident was the following. Loitering on the river bank, after he had sold his little cargo, Lincoln saw what was to him then an unusual sight, a steam- boat coming down the river. At the same time two men came to the river's edge, seeking a boat to take them to the approaching steamer. In answer to their call, he sculled the two passengers to the boat, and, when he had put them on board with their luggage, what was his astonishment to find in his hand, as his fee, two silver half-dollars ! " I could scarcely believe my eyes," he said, when telling this adventure, years afterward, to Secretary Seward. '* You may think it a very little thing ; but it was the most important incident in my life. I, a poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day. The world seemed wider and fairer before me. I was a more hopeful and confident being from that time." It was one year later, when Lincoln was nineteen years old, that he made his second voyage. Mr. Gentry, the owner of the neighborhood store, looked about him for a trustw^orthy man to take a flat- boat with a cargo of produce to New Orleans. Abra- ham had not been much away from home, had no familiarity with business or with river navigation, and had never even seen the Lower Mississippi. But the Young Manhood 27 trader knew his man, and made an offer to Lincoln, placing him in full charge of the venture. Lincoln accepted. His good fortune seemed wonderful. And when he and his companion, young Allen Gentry, cut loose from Gentry ville and slowly drifted down Pigeon Creek into the Ohio, on a voyage of eighteen hundred miles, not Columbus sailing forth into unknown seas, nor the master of the first steamship that ploughed the Atlantic, could have been more impressed with the mightiness of the prospect before him than the back- woods boy on his first expedition from the forests of southern Indiana. As they descended the mighty Father of Waters, then flowing unvexed to the sea, plantations began to dot the landscape. Here and there friendly or inquisi- tive settlers came down to the bank to ask them about their " load." Or, when they made fast to the most convenient tree at nightfall, a far-wandering hunter came to share * ' pot-luck ' ' and the gossip of the region with the youthful adventurers. In this way they picked up a store of information, useful and otherwise, and many a queer tale of frontier life. Tied up to a bank one night, as was their custom, the twain slept soundly after their day of toil, when they were waked by a scrambling near at hand. Springing to his feet, Abraham shouted, ** Who 's there?" There was no reply, and, seizing a handspike, he made ready for an attack. Seven negroes, evidently on an errand of plunder, now appeared. Abe held himself ready to " repel boarders," and the first man that jumped on board was received with a heavy blow that knocked him into the water. A second, a third, and a fourth, essaying the same thing, were similarly re- ceived. The other three, seeing they were no match 28 Abraham Lincoln for the tall backwoodsman and his ally, took to their heels, pursued by Abe and Allen. When they over- took the negroes, a hand-to-hand fight ensued ; but the thieves finally fled again, leaving on the future President a scar that he carried to his grave. The cargo was sold to good advantage before reach- ing New Orleans. Then, the empty boat being disposed of, for it would not pay to take it home up-stream, the two adventurers, elated with their first notable success, made their way homeward by steamboat. They had seen a bit of the great world. And Abraham Lincoln had seen what he never forgot, his first close view of human slavery ; slav^es toiling on the plantations, slaves bending beneath their tasks on the levees of the river towns, and, what was more memorable than all, slaves in squads and cofiles, torn from old homes and families far away, bound up the river on the steam- boats that were now frequent on the busy Mississippi. He who v/as to be known through all coming time as The Emancipator had made his first study of his fellow-man in hopeless bondage. Abraham Lincoln, up to this point, was what is called a self-made man in the strictest sense of that word. What he had learned, he had learned of him- self. What he knew, he knew with absolute accuracy. Self-taught and self-dependent, he had all his resources, mental, moral, and physical, well in hand. So self- reliant and yet, withal, so modest and diffident a char- acter was probably never known before. Growing up in the almost trackless forest, he had absorbed the in- fluences of the wild-wood. He had been held close to nature, had had as much time for solitary meditation as was wholesome for him ; and he had never been for an hour dependent on other people, or on other < o CD CC. UJ > Q. Q. CO CO CO CO < Young Manhood 29 than the humblest means, for intellectual stimulus. Such as he was, it may be said, God had made him. The man that was within him was thoroughly original. Henceforth he was not to be hidden in the back- woods. The stalwart young pioneer, now six feet four inches tall, could outrun and outwalk any one of his comrades, and, as has been said by those who knew him then, *' he could strike the hardest blow with axe or maul, jump higher and farther than any of his fel- lows, and there was no one, far or near, that could lay him on his back." These accomplishments counted for much in a community where physical endurance and muscular strength were needed for every day's duties. But the kindly youth, strong though he was, had a gentle manner that endeared him to everybody that came in contact with him. He had a wonderful power of narration. He kept his audiences at the country store until midnight, says one of his comrades, listening to his shrewd wisdom, native wit, and vivid recitals. Unconsciousl}^ to himself, this simple-hearted and humble-minded j^oung man was absorbing into his own experience the rude lore of the backwoodsman. He was studying character, filling his mind with facts and experiences ; and, in after years, in other scenes and in a far busier life than this, the fresh and original pictures that he sketched in speech or story, came from the panorama of human action unrolled before him in old Kentucky and southern Indiana. CHAPTER IV THK LINCOLNS IN II^IvINOIS ONCE more the Lincoln family * ' pulled up stakes ' ' and moved westward. This time it was to Illi- nois, which, in the Indian vernacular, signifies " the land of the full-grown men." Thomas Hanks, one of the most steady and well-balanced of this somewhat wandering group of people, had gone to Macon County, Illinois, in the autumn of 1829. He had been so favor- ably impressed with what he saw and heard that he had written to Thomas Lincoln to come on and bring the family. It does not appear to have required much persuasion ever to induce Thomas Lincoln to change his place. He had made no progress in Indiana be- yond providing for their actual wants. He could do no worse in Illinois, accounts of which as a land liter- ally flowing with milk and honey were already spread- ing over the older States. So, in the spring of 1830, as soon as the frost was out of the ground, Lincoln, having sold crops, hogs, and farm improvements to Mr. Gentry, packed all his remaining earthly posses- sions into a wagon and set his face westward. Two weeks of tiresome travel were consumed in reaching the place selected for them on the public lands near the village of Decatur, Macon County. The entire * ' outfit, ' ' consisting of one wagon drawn by four yoke 30 The Lincolns In Illinois 31 of oxen, driven by Abraham I^incolu, came to anchor as it were, on a patch of bottom-land hitherto un- touched by the hand of man. Young I^incoln lent a hand in raising the cabin that was to be the home of the family. And when this work was done and the immigrants were securely under cover, he and Thomas Hanks ploughed fifteen acres of virgin soil, cut down and split into rails sundry walnut logs of the adjacent forest, worked out rails, and fenced his father's first Illinois farm. Now it was time for young Abraham to strike out for himself. He had thought of doing that before, but had been reminded that he was a servant to his father until he was twenty-one years old. He was now in his twenty-second year, able and anxious to make his own living. During the summer of 1830, he worked at odd jobs in the neighborhood, alw^ays alert and cheerful, ready to turn his hand to any honest bit of work, and soon growing in favor with the rude and simple pioneers. " The winter of the deep snow " was that of 1830-1, unto this day a memorable period of time in central Illinois. The snowfall began on Christmas day. It continued until the snow was three feet deep on a level. Then came a drizzling rain that froze as it fell, the thermometer sinking to twelve degrees below zero. The intense cold and the difficulty of getting about made that winter famous forever after in the annals of the country. Herds of deer were easily caught and killed, imprisoned as they were in the icy crust that broke beneath their sharp feet. Game of all kinds was slaughtered by the hungry settlers, as they came out of their scattered villages in search of food, and from that day large game never again was so plenty in the 32 Abraham Lincoln State. Roads were finally broken from cabin to cabin and from hamlet to hamlet by " wallowing," the entire population, men, women, children, dogs, oxen, and horses, turning out and trampling down and kicking out the snow. Long after ploughing had begun, next spring, the muddy-white foundations of these rural roads remained, unmelted, to stretch across the black soil of the prairies. During the winter of the deep snow, 3^oung Lincoln made the acquaintance of Denton Offutt, a small trader of the region. Hearing that Lincoln and Hanks were '* likely young fellows, ' ' Ofi"utt proposed that they take a boat-load of provisions to New Orleans for him. The boys were right glad to take such an ofier, especially as Offutt agreed to " find " them — that is to sa3% to furnish their food — and to pay them fifty cents a day, and, if the venture were successful, to give them a farther reward of twenty dollars each. This was great prospective riches to the 3^oungsters, neither of whom had ever had so much money at one time. John Johnston, Abraham's foster-brother, was added to the crew, and, having built their flatboat, the party, Offutt, Abraham Lincoln, John Hanks, and John Johnston, embarked on the roaring Sangamon at Springfield. Although the river was booming with the spring freshets, the frail craft, not far below the point of de- parture, stuck on a mill-dam, and there it stuck and hung. The population of New Salem came down to the river's margin, commented on the disaster, chaffed and hectored the shipwrecked mariners, and generally made merry over the affair, to the annoyance of the owner. But ' * the bow oar ' ' rolled up his trousers, waded into the stream, unloaded the barge, whose nose The LIncolns in Illinois 33 was well out of water while her stern was well under it, bored holes to let out the flood, and rigged up a contrivance to hoist the boat over the dam. This done, the craft was again loaded, the holes were plugged, and, amidst the cheers of the critical popula- tion, the voyagers shot down-stream on their rejoicing way. Years afterwards, when lyincoln was a practising lawyer, he whittled out a model of his invention for hoisting vessels over shoals and had it patented in Washington. The curious visitor to the Patent Oflice in the national capitol is shown to-day a little wooden boat and an odd combination of strips and bars by which, as Mr. Lincoln afterwards said, a man might lift himself over a rail fence by the waistband of his breeches. The adventurers had a swift and prosperous voyage down the river to New Orleans. This was Lincoln's second visit to the land of slaver}''. He saw more of the " peculiar institution " than before. He saw men and women whipped, bought, and sold, families separated, children torn from their parents and wives from their husbands. ** Lincoln saw it ; his heart bled ; said no- thing much, was silent, looked bad. I can say it, knowing him, that it was on this trip that he formed his opinions of slavery. It run its iron into him then and there. May, 1831." said John Hanks, hi later years. On his return from New Orleans Lincoln was en- gaged by Offutt to take charge of a small country store which he had opened at New Salem. So the little community that had witnessed the struggle and tri- umph on Rutledge's dam now made the acquaintance of the hero of that exploit at closer range. He at once 34 Abraham Lincoln established himself as a favorite with the people, who, rude and rough though they were, readily appreciated the good qualities of any stranger that came among them. In managing the country store, as in everything that he undertook for others, Lincoln did his best. On one occasion, finding, late at night, when he counted over his cash, that he had taken a few cents from a customer more than was due, he closed the store and w^alked a long distance to make good the deficiency. At another time, discovering on the scales in the morning a weight with which he had weighed out a package of tea for a woman, the night before, he saw that he had given her too little for her money ; he weighed out what was due and carried it to her, much to the surprise of the woman, who had not known that she was short in the amount of her purchase. We have not space to tell of his efibrts to protect women from insult, or children from tyranny ; for, in the rude community in which he lived, the rights of the defence- less were not always respected as they should have been. Not far from New Salem was a group of farras known as Clary's Grove. The " Clary's Grove boys," as the overgrown young men of the settle- ment were called, were rude, boisterous, swaggering, and tremendous fighters. They cast their eyes on the young stranger at Offutt's store, so well liked by the women, and resolved that they would " take him down a peg." Jack Armstrong, the bull}^ of the band, was to do the deed. The crowd gathered around to see the sport, but the stalwart young Kentuckian soon showed that he was more than a match for the cham- pion of Clary's Grove. Jack Armstrong was slowly sinking under the vigorous wrestling of the long- .. .. yj V '^■i•VC^,/,•• CO > O > o o CO >- cc < UJ I h- Q z < o z o QC t- co oc < O < QC U I- z O o z UJ CO o o 2 The Lincolns in Illinois 35 limbed Lincoln, when, in his desperation, he resorted to foul play. Lincoln, stung by his meanness, seized the bully by the throat with both hands, and, putting forth all his giant strength, flung him in the air, shak- ing him as though he were a child, the legs of the champion whirling madly over his head. At this astounding performance, the gang of Clary's Grove broke into the circle, and Lincoln, backing against the store, calmly waited their onset. But Jack Armstrong, with what breath remained to him warned off his comrades, and, touched by a feeling of chivalry, shook his adversary by the hand, crying: '' Boys! Abe Lincoln is the best fellow that ever broke into this set- tlement ! He shall be one of us ! " That settled it. Out of the fight that he had tried to avoid, Lincoln emerged as champion. Thenceforth, no truer friend, no more devoted allj^ than Jack Armstrong to Abraham Lincoln ever lived. In later days, when Lincoln was out of money, out of work, all that Jack had was his. Lincoln was no fighter. He was brave, absolutely unafraid of anybody or anything. He never played cards, nor gambled, nor smoked, nor used profane lan- guage, nor addicted himself to any of the rude vices of the times. But far and wide he was reckoned a hero, worshipped by the stalwart wrestlers and runners of the region, cordially liked by the women, respected as a rising and brave young fellow by the elders, and earning for himself the title that stuck to him through life, '' Honest Abe." Abe Lincoln became, by general consent, the peace- maker, the arbitrator of all the petty quarrels of the neighborhood. Shunning vulgar brawls himself, he attempted to keep others out of them. An absolutely honest man, he advised exact justice to all who sought 36 Abraham Lincoln his advice ; and, whenever there v^as too much vio- lence developed in debate around Offutt's store door, the tall form of the young manager was sure to be seen towering over the conflict ; and when argument failed to quell the disturbance, those long arms invariably brought peace. In all his activities, however, Lincoln never for one moment knew what it was to " let up " on his reading and studies. Very poor he was, but he skimped him- self and went without what many boys would call ne- cessary clothing to subscribe to the Louisville Courier^ then edited by that famous whig, George D. Prentice, a witty and most brilliant man. This was, as he after- wards, said, his greatest luxury. He read every word, and some of its articles were committed to memory by sheer force of habit. Pondering over the editorial arti- cles of his favorite newspaper, he attempted to discover how they were constructed, and what were the rules by which language was composed and sentences framed. Application to the village schoolmaster gave him a hint as to grammar, and he was not satisfied until he had hunted down, somewhere in the region, a copy of Kirkham's Grammar. This he carried home in great triumph, nor did he pause until he had mastered its contents. He said that he was surprised to find how little there was in a work that was made so much of by the schoolmaster. He had * * collared " it in a week, and had returned the book to its owner. CHAPTER V A PI.UNGK INTO POI.ITICS UP to this time, Lincoln had never held any ofl&ce except that of an occasional clerk of election. But the spring of 1832 found him out of business, out of work. Offutt's store had gone to pieces, that gen- tleman's numerous irons in the fire having at last proved too many for him. If ever Lincoln was at lib- erty to try his hand at politics, this was the time. He had been trained, or rather had grown up, in the back- woods, had gradually made the acquaintance of man- kind, had meditated and read, and had accustomed himself to speaking extemporaneously. He was a good story-teller, alert, quick-witted, full of apt illus- tration and anecdote, and was so close a student of human nature that he was always able to adapt himself to his little audience. Above all, by his unvarying good-nature and helpfulness he had made friends of all who ever met him. At the bottom of a barrel of '' trash " that Offutt had taken in exchange for goods, Lincoln found two old law books. On these he fell like a hungry child, and he never left them until he had mavStered their contents. In this way, Lincoln had absorbed a great deal of use- ful knowledge. He was always thirsty for information. If he heard of a new" book, and new books were pretty 37 38 Abraham Lincoln scarce in those days, he was restless until he had got a sight at it. For this purpose, he walked many a mile, counting no labor, no privation, anything, if it brought him nearer the coveted information of men and things. Lincoln resolved to become a candidate for Repre- sentative to the Legislature, and in a circular, dated March 9, 1832, he appealed to his friends and fellow- citizens to vote for him. He had by this time become a pronounced Whig in politics, following in the foot- steps of his great chief and pattern, Henry Clay. But he hoped, and not without reason, to secure many of the votes of those who knew and liked him for his manly and admirable qualities. Before the election came on, however, there was a call for volunteers to re- pel hostile Indians. The famous chief, Black Hawk, was on the war-path, and at the head of a party of braves had crossed the Mississippi to the northern part of the State and was pursuing his way up-stream in a lei- surely manner. The Governor of Illinois called for two thousand volunteers. The country was panic-stricken. Lincol n was among the first to volunteer. At the head of a party of Sangamon County men, among whom were many of the Clary's Grove boys, Lincoln made his way to the north, where General Atkinson, then in com- mand of the small United States force operating in the region, was encamped. The Clary's Grove boys in- sisted that nobody but Lincoln should lead them to the war. When the time came for their captain to be chosen, word was given that all in favor of Lincoln should range themselves by his side, as he stood on the village green, and all who favored Kirkpatrick, the rival candidate, should take position near him. When the lines were formed, Lincoln's was three times as long as Kirkpatrick' s ; and so he was joyfully declared A Plunge Into Politics 39 to be elected. This unsought honor, the first elective office that he ever held, gave Iviucoln much solid satisfaction. Lincoln's company was mustered into the service of the United States at Dixon's Ferry, Rock River, by Robert Anderson, a lieutenant and assistant inspector- general of the Army. The little force reported to Colonel Zachary Taylor, United States Army. In later years, Robert Anderson commanded at Fort Sumter when the first gun of the Rebellion was fired. As " Rough and Ready," General Taylor was endeared to the hearts of his countrymen, and he was elected to the presidency in 1848. The campaign against Black Hawk was short and decisive. In this connection two incidents are related of Lin- coln. An aged Indian, half-starved and alone, came into camp, one day, bearing a safe-conduct from Gen- eral Cass. The soldiers, infuriated by some recent atrocities of Black Hawk's men, fell upon him and would have killed him. Lincoln, hearing the tumult, burst excitedly into the group and, throwing up their levelled muskets with his own hands, cried : " Boys ! You shall not do this thing ! You shall not shoot at this Indian ! ' ' For an instant, he stood defiantly be- fore the red refugee, sheltering him from their ready weapons, and it was for a time doubtful if both would not bite the dust. But the men, seeing the courage and manliness of their captain, lowered their guns and turned sullenly away. One of Lincoln's faithful com- rades, Bill Green, said of this, " I never saw Lincoln so roused before." When Lincoln was in the White House, he told this story : The only time he saw blood in this campaign was one morning when, marching up a little valley 40 Abraham Lincoln to reinforce a squad of outposts, he came, just at sun- rise, upon their tent and found the men dead, all l3dng with their heads towards the rising sun, and the round red spot that marked where they had been scalped gleaming redly in the light of the sun. This was Lincoln's first glimpse of what war might be. In 1848, while Lincoln was in Congress, General Lewis Cass was a candidate for the presidency, and his friends made much of his military record. To Lin- coln's mind, ever disposed to the humorous side of things, this seemed absurd, and, addressing the Chair one day in the course of debate, he said: " Did you know, Mr. Speaker, I am a military hero ? In the daj^s of the Black Hawk War I fought, bled, and came away. I was not at Stillman's defeat, but I was about as near it as General Cass was to Hull's surren- der ; and, like him, I saw the place very soon after- wards. It is quite certain I did not break my sword, for I had none to break, but I bent my musket pretty badly on one occasion. If General Cass went in ad- vance of me picking whortleberries, I guess I surpassed him in charges on the wild onions. If he saw any live fighting Indians, it was more than I did, but I had a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes ; and although I never fainted from loss of blood, I can truly say I was often very hungry. Mr. Speaker, if ever I should conclude to doff whatever our Democratic friends may suppose there is of black-cockade Federal- ism about me, and thereupon they shall take me up as their candidate for the presidency, I protest that they shall not make fun of me, as they have of General Cass, by attempting to write me into a military hero." When Black Hawk had been hunted out, Lincoln quickly made his way back to Sangamon County. A Plunge into Politics 41 The election soon came on, and, although he received a majority of the votes of his own precinct, he failed to carry his district. In those primitive days, it was not usual for candidates to expend much money in a can- vass, and this fact did not make Lincoln's defeat so great a misfortune to him as it might have been under other circumstances. In the circular before mentioned, he had taken ground as a Whig; and in one of the few speeches of which we have scanty reports, he said : '* I am in favor of a national bank ; I am in favor of the internal-improvement system, and of a protective tariff. These are my sentiments and political principles." They were sentiments and principles exactly opposed to the party in power. It cost some effort, perhaps, for a poor and comparatively unknown young man, without family friends to back him, to cast in his lot with the despised minority. But in that path Lincoln followed. Lincoln's canvass brought him into contact with many of the prominent men of that part of the State. His speeches were argumentative, interspersed with racy anecdotes, full of humor, and more diffuse, per- haps., than those delivered in later years. It was not uncommon for the audience to ask questions of the speaker while he was in full tide of his address. Lin- coln always answered these queries, when they were not impertinent, with ready good-humor and generally with what was called *' an actual settler of an argu- ment." On one occasion, seeing from his elevation that a friend of his in the crowd before him had been attacked by a ruffianly fellow, and was getting the worst of it, Lincoln descended from his temporary ros- trum, seized the assailant by the scruff of the neck, threw him about ten feet, and then, having discharged 42 Abraham Lincoln his duty as a keeper of the peace, calmly remounted the stump and went on with his speech as if nothing had happened to interrupt it. Defeated in his race for the Legislature, Lincoln was forced to look around him for some means of livelihood. He had none. He had dabbled in politics and done some campaigning, and these occupations had unfitted him for resuming his place as a day laborer. It hap- pened that the store of a neighboring merchant, one Radford, had become offensive to the Clary's Grove boys, for some unexplained reason, and they promptly wrecked it, staving in the windows and prying out one corner of its foundations. Radford thought it best to move thence, and he sold his stock to a chance passer- by named Greene, the price being two hundred dol- lars — on paper. Lincoln was called in to make an inventory of the contents of the damaged building, and, being fascinated with the possibilities of the stock, he offered two hundred and fifty dollars for the lot. Greene gladly accepted the proposition, and gave full possession of the establishment to Lincoln, making fifty dollars on his bargain — also on paper. For not a cent of hard money changed hands, the consideration being, as usual, a note of hand. In this venture, Lincoln had a partner, one Berry, an idle and dissolute fellow, from whom he was soon obliged to separate, and in a very short time the enter- prise, begun with so much promise and so many ex- pectations, fell into ruin, and the goods were sold in lots to suit purchasers, to close out the concern. Lin- coln was again on the world without occupation, and loaded dow^n with debts incurred in this latest specula- tion. The store, as he expressed it, had " winked out," and he had no immediate recourse. He had A Plunge Into Politics 43 read law-books in a desultory and unaided way, and now he tackled them with more energy than ever, dimly realizing that here, at least, was a gleam of lead- ing light for him. He borrowed every book on law that he could find, the attorneys of the region round about good-naturedly lending him whatever they had. He also bought an old book of legal forms, and amused himself and his neighbors with drawing up imaginary deeds, wills, and conveyances in which fic- titious property was disposed of at tremendous prices ; this by way of practice. But whenever an oppor- tunity occurred the people went to " Abe I^incoln " for advice and assistance in the selling or mortgaging of real estate, and thus he gradually worked his way into something like a business. His fees were gener- ally necessaries of life turned in to the family with whom he happened to board. He also undertook small cases on trial before the justice of the peace, and, to use his own figure of speech, '' tried on a dog " his legal eloquence and lore. About this time, too, that is to say, in 1833, he undertook the study of surveying, and, as in other undertakings, he succeeded so well that he soon became an expert. His instruments were few and simple ; contemporaries have said that his first chain was a grape-vine. But maps and plots of land surveyed by lyincoln, still extant, show a neatness and semblance of accuracy that testify to the rigid care that he always exercised in all his work. In May, 1833, Andrew Jackson being President, Abraham I^incoln was appointed postmaster of New Salem. The oflSce had very small revenues and no political importance. It was given to I^incoln, because all his neighbors wanted him to have it, and because he 44 Abraham Lincoln was the only man willing to take it and able to make out the necessary returns to the post-office department. The mail was light, and Lincoln, as tradition runs, generally carried the post-office in his hat. He could not keep at home, of course, and when a villager met him and asked if there were letters for him, the post- master gravely searched through his hat for an answer. But there were newspapers brought to New Salem by this weeklj^ mail, and Lincoln religiousl}^ made it his duty to read them all before they could be called for ; this, he used to say, made the office worth more to him than many times the amount of the money income. In course of time, the population of New Salem migrated to other and more promising localities, and the post-office was discontinued. When an agent of the post-office department came to settle the accounts and to collect the small balance due to the Government, Lincoln's friend, Dr. A. G. Henr}^, happened to be present, and, knowing Lincoln's extreme poverty, offered to lend him the sum required. '' Hold on a minute," said Lincoln, " and let 's see how we come out." Going to his sleeping- room, he brought out an old stocking and, untying it, poured on the table the exact amount, just as it had been paid to him in pen- nies and small silver pieces. Many a time had Lincoln been in bitter want, many a time hard-pressed for money; but the receipts of the little post-office were to him a sacred trust, to be kept until required of him. The debt incurred by the "winking out" of the store of Berry & Lincoln pressed upon him. So vast did it seem that he was accustomed to speak of it as " the national debt." But, unlike most national debts, it was ultimately paid. In the course of business, the notes that he and Berry had given for the stock-in- A Plunge into Politics 45 trade fell into the hands of a person who was more than usually impatient ; for every man's credit, in those days, was unlimited. The creditor in this case seized Lincoln's horse, saddle, and bridle and sold them under a sheriff's execution. One of Lincoln's steadfast friends, Bolin Greene, attended the sale, from which Lincoln, greatly cast down in his mind, absented himself. Greene bought the outfit, and, to Lincoln's great surprise and relief, gave them to him with the injunction, " Pay for them, Abe, when you get ready, and if you never get ready, it 's all the same to me." Not long after this, Bolin Greene — long be his name remembered ! — died, and Lincoln was asked by his townsmen of New Salem to deliver a eulogy at his burial. The rising young lawyer attempted the grate- ful task, but his voice failed him. The tears ran down his cheeks as he rose to speak, and, overcome with emotion, he sat down without saying a word. More eloquent than words, his tears spoke his affection for the man who had been his friend in need. CHAPTER VI THK YOUNG POI.ITICIAN IN 1834, Lincoln again became a candidate for the Legislature. This was to be expected. On the previous occasion, he had made what was a very good run, although, as we have seen, he had a very few days in which to finish his canvass after returning from the war. The election took place in August, and, after a sharp fight, Lincoln was elected. Man^^ Demo- crats, we are told, voted for him from purely personal and friendly reasons, and he was sure of the united support of the Whigs. The four successful candidates, with their votes, were as follows : Lincoln, 1376 ; Dawson, 1370; Carpenter, 11 70; Stuart, 1164 ; Lin- coln thus leading the poll. To say that Lincoln was elated, would faintly express his satisfaction over this great but not unexpected triumph. He was now twenty-five years old, hardy, in perfect health, manly, tolerably self-possessed, and not ashamed to address himself to the discussion of any of the questions of the day, and fully competent to hold his own with the gen- eral run of debaters on the stump, or in the Legislature. He had mastered the elementary law-books, was familiar with legal phrases and forms, knew every rod of the country roundabout the region from which he was a representative, and, above all, knew the people, 46 The Young Politician 47 their wants, their hopes, fears, aspirations, habits, and manner of life. But we do not learn that in the I^egislature of that year I^incoln was remarkable for anything but his height, then six feet and four inches. If he created any impression otherwise, it was when, the day's ses- sion over, he tilted his chair back in some place where the budding statesmen chiefly congregated, and enter- tained them with stories of which the repute has lasted long. But the tall j^oung backwoodsman, now passing into the era of statesmanship, was keenly alive to all that was going on. He held his place in the legislative debates, but he listened to others. He introduced few bills, but he narrowly observed what other men were doing in this direction ; and, while he said little, he took in everything and thought a great deal. The session of that winter was not lost to him. Next year, he was again nominated for the I^egisla- ture and was again elected, as in 1834. In his appeal to the voters, that year, Lincoln said : " I go for all sharing the privileges of the Government who assist in bearing its burdens. Consequently, I go for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms (by no means excluding females)." And again : " Whether elected or not, I go for distributing the proceeds of the sales of the public lands to the sev- eral States, to enable our State, in common with other States, to dig canals and construct railroads without borrowing money and paying interest on it." At that time there were two great questions before the people : one was the right of persons not born in the United States to vote ; and the other was the policy of making public improvements, such as those named by Lincoln, at public expense. 48 Abraham Lincoln During his canvass, Lincoln made additions to his reputation for ready wit and humor. On one occasion he was pitted against George Forquer, who, from being a leading Whig, had become a bitter *' whole-hog Jackson man," and had been rewarded for his apostasy with a good office. Forquer was not a candidate in this canvass, but was called in to " boom " the Demo- cratic nominee against lyincoln. Riding into Spring- field, where the meeting was to be held, Lincoln's attention was drawn to Forquer' s fine house, on which was a lightning-rod, then a great novelty in those parts. Lincoln had been allotted to close the debate, and Forquer, who spoke next before him, devoted himself to " taking down " the young man from New Salem. He ridiculed his dress, manners, and rough personal appearance, and, with much pompositj^, de- rided him as an uncouth j^oungster. Lincoln, on rising to reply, stood for a moment with flashing e3^es and pale cheeks, betraying his inward but unspoken wrath. He began by answering very briefly this ungenerous attack. He said : " I am not so j^oung in years as I am in the tricks and the trades of a politician ; but, live long, or die 3'Oung, I would rather die now than, like that gentleman, change my politics, and with the change, receive an office worth three thousand dollars a year, and then feel obliged to erect a lightning-rod over my house to protect a guilt}^ conscience from an offended God." The effect upon the simple audience, gathered there in the open air, was electrical. Here was a pompous and vainglorious man, who, as the settlers thought, could not sleep in his fine house, compared with which their rude cabins were poor indeed, without setting up this unusual and heaven-defying instrument. When Forquer rose to The Young Politician 49 speak, later on in the canvass, people said : '' That 's the man who dare not sleep in his own house without a lightning-rod to keep off the vengeance of the Al- mighty." At another time, Lincoln met on the stump Colonel Richard Taylor, a self- conceited and dandified man, who wore a gold chain, ruffled shirt, and other adorn- ments to which the men of southern Illinois were quite unaccustomed. It was the business of the Democrats to rate themselves as the hard-working bone and sinew of the land, and to stigmatize the Whigs as aristocrats, ruffled-shirted gentry. So Colonel Taylor spoke with his finery concealed under a long surtout. But when he was making a sweeping gesture he accidentally threw open his surtout, and revealed his gorgeous array of chains, seals, pendants, and ruffles. While he paused in embarrassment, Lincoln seized upon the opportunity, and, standing in full view, with his coarse attire and rough appearance strongly contrasting with the dandified Colonel, cried, laying his hand on his jeans-clad breast : '' Here is your aristocrat, one of your silk-stocking gentry, at your service." Then, spreading out his hands, bronzed and gaunt with toil : *' Here is your rag-baron with lily-white hands. Yes, I suppose, according to my friend Taj-lor, I am a bloated aristocrat ! " It was a long time before the amiable Colonel Taylor heard the last of that exposure and humiliation. In the Legislature to which Lincoln had been elected were not a few men whom we shall meet later on in this strange, eventful history. One of these was Ed- ward D. Baker, a wonderful orator, afterwards Lin- coln's associate in the law, and subsequently United States Senator from Oregon, a general in the army, and 50 Abraham Lincoln killed at Ball's BliifF. Another was Stephen Arnold Douglas; others were John J. Hardin, James Shields, WilHam A. Richardson, John Logan, and John A. McClernand. From Savannah County there were two Senators and seven Representatives, nine in all, and each man very tall, Lincoln being the tallest of the nine, and familiarly known as '* the Sangamon chief" The combined height of this tall delegation was fifty-five feet. No wonder that it was popularly known as *' the Long Nine." One of the most notable achievements of Sangamon County's '* Long Nine " that winter was the removal of the capital of the State from Vandalia, Macon County, to Spring- field, Sangamon County, a triumph for which Lincoln received generous credit from his admiring colleagues of the delegation. At this session, too, Lincoln put himself on record for the first time as opposed to the further extension of the American system of human slavery. The tem- per of the times, at least in that region, was favorable to slavery. Illinois and Indiana were affected by the pro-slaverj^ influences of their nearest neighbors. Ken- tuck}^ and Missouri, rivals in trade and commerce. The legislation of these two States was designed to encourage slave-holding in the slave-holding States and discourage all anti-slavery agitation in non-slave- holding States. Certain resolutions on the subject of slavery were passed by the Illinois Legislature during the session of which we are writing; what they were, we cannot tell, for they have vanished into oblivion ; but undoubtedly they were intended to con- vince slave-holding customers and traders that Illinois could be relied upon to stem the rising tide of anti- slavery in the North. As their answer to these The Young Politician 51 utterances, Abraham lyincoln and Dan Stone drew up and signed the following paper : "March 3, 1837. " Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having passed both branches of the General Assembly at its present session, the undersigned hereby protest against the passage of the same. " They believe that the institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy, but that the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to in- crease than abate its evils. '' They believe that the Congress of the United States has no power under the Constitution to interfere with the institution of slavery in the different States. " They believe that the Congress of the United States has the power, under the Constitution, to abol- ish slavery in the District of Columbia, but that the power ought not to be exercised, unless at the request of the people of the District. " The difference between these opinions and those contained in the above resolutions is their reason for entering this protest. (Signed) *' Dan Stone, /'A. I^INCOLN, ** Representatives from the county of Sangamon." This protest was received and ordered to be spread on the journals of the House, much to the regret of some of Ivincoln's more timorous friends, who probably did not believe that slavery could pass away from the face of the land during the time of any then living. It was, for those times, a bold and dangerous thing to say that the institution of slavery was founded on injustice and bad policy. Men had been mobbed and treated 52 Abraham Lincoln with violence for saying no more than this, so intol- erant and brutal was the spirit of the slave-owning and slavery-defending class. On the whole, the doings of Lincoln and the other members of " the Long Nine " were highly acceptable to the people of Sangamon County. The Lincoln- Stone protest was looked upon as a harmless vagary, already overshadowed by the greatness of the feat of moving the State capital to Springfield. The long- limbed group was hailed with great acclaim, and nu- merous feasts and festivities were given in its honor. Among the toasts offered in praise of '* the Sangamon chief " were these : " Abraham Lincoln : he has ful- filled the expectations of his friends and disappointed the hopes of his enemies." " A. Lincoln : one of nature's noblemen." In April, 1837, Lincoln went to Springfield, the new capital of the State, where he established himself in the practice of law, and where he remained until his election to the presidency. He had managed, crippled though he was with *' the national debt," to earn a scanty livelihood and to keep good his credit. But the new venture was a doubtful one, and he undertook it with many misgivings. He rode into town on a borrowed horse, his earthly possessions packed in a pair of saddle-bags fastened to the crupper of his sad- dle. Tying the horse to a fence-post, Lincoln sought the store of his friend, Mr. Joshua F. Speed, formerly of Kentucky, and asked for information concerning board and lodging. He proposed to hire a room, fur- nish it, and, as he expressed it, *' browse around " for his sustenance. To his great dismay, the price of the barest necessaries in the way of furniture would cost seventeen dollars. The Young Politician 53 Lincoln said, sadly: *' It is cheap enough, but, cheap as it is, I have not the money to pay for it. But if you will credit me until Christmas, and my experiment here is a success, I will pay you then. If I fail, I will probably never be able to pay you." Speed replied : "I have a very large double bed which you are perfectly welcome to share with me, if you choose." *' Where is your bed ? " asked Lincoln. *' Up-stairs," replied Speed. Lincoln took his saddle-bags on his arm and went up-stairs, set them on the floor, took a swift survey of the premises, and then came down again, good- humoredly laughing, and said: '* Speed, I am moved." And Lincoln was then settled in his new quarters with his steadfast friend, Mr. Speed. The new capital of Illinois was a large village, its population being about eighteen thousand. It was the county-seat of Sangamon, and the United States Court for that circuit was held there. These, with the annual session of the Legislature, imparted to the embryo metropolis considerable importance. To the shy son of the Kentucky backwoods, doubtless, there was a great deal of " flourishing about " among the people of the capital ; but we must make allowance for the fact that Springfield, like Lincoln, was only just emerging from the backwoods. The court-house was built of logs, and this was true of nearly all the court-houses on the circuit. The judge sat at a cloth-covered table, behind a rail that separated the awful majesty of the bench from the bar and people. The rest of the vSpace was occupied by a promiscuous crowd, and it was a very dull day when the court-house audience did not press hard upon the 54 Abraham Lincoln accommodations allotted for clerk, bar, and official attendants at the trial. For the court-house afforded, in those days of few amusements, almost the only in- door entertainment of the people. Here they found tragedy, comedy, elocution, contests of wit and logic, and all that material for neighborhood gossip that is needed so keenlj^ in sparsely settled communities. The lawyers rode horseback from court-house to court-house, trying cases and following the presiding judges in their circuit. Each limb of the law carried with him, in his saddle-bags, a change of raiment, a few law-books, and the articles of use indispensable to the hard-faring traveller. Manners were vSimple, even rude, but kindly and hospitable. It was on these long jaunts, travelled in company with judges, witnesses, and jurymen, that Lincoln picked up many of his stories of wild Western life and manners. Once, I^incoln, having assisted the prosecuting attor- ney in the trial of a man who had taken some of his neighbor's chickens, fell in, next day, jogging along the highway, with the foreman of the jury who had con- victed the hen-stealer. The man complimented Lin- coln on the zeal and ability of the prosecution, and remarked : " Why, when the country was young and I was stronger than I am now, I did n't mind backing off a sheep now and again. But stealing hens! " The good man could not find words to express his contempt for a man who would steal hens. On another occasion, while liding the circuit, Lin- coln was missed from the party, having loitered, appa- rentl}^, near a thicket of wild plum trees where the cavalcade had stopped to water their steeds. One of the company, coming up with the others, reported, in answer to questions : ' ' When I saw him last, he had The Young Politician 55 caught two young birds that the wind had blown out of their nest, and was hunting for the nest to put them back." The men ralhed Lincoln on his tender-heart- edness, when he caught up with them. But he said : " I could not have slept unless I had restored those little birds to their mother." Lincoln formed a law partnership with John T. Stuart, of Springfield, in April, 1837, and this relation continued until April, 1841, when Lincoln associated himself in business with Stephen T. Logan. This partnership was dissolved in September, 1843, when the law firm of Abraham Lincoln & William H. Herndon was formed, and this co-partnership was not dissolved until the death of Lincoln, in 1865. As a lawyer, Lincoln soon proved that the qualities that had won him the title of Honest Abe Lincoln, when he was a store-keeper, still stuck to him. He was an honest lawyer ; he never undertook a case of doubtful morality. If it was a criminal whom he was defending, and he became convinced of the guilt of the prisoner, he lost all heart in the case. No fee, no ex- pectation of winning fame for his shrewdness, would induce him to undertake a suit in which it would be necessary to resort to quibbles and nice little tricks to win. When he was not yet twenty-eight years old, he was asked to deliver a lecture before an association of young men in Springfield. He chose for his theme " The Perpetuation of our Political Institutions," rather an ambitious topic, one might say. But it was not a crude effort. Considering that it was the work of a self-taught man, who had never seen the inside of a college, it was remarkable as a piece of literary com- position. It was the address of a thinking man, an 56 Abraham Lincoln ardent and devoted patriot. Alluding to our Revolu- tionary ancestors, he said : " In history, we hope they will be read of, and re- counted so long as the Bible shall be read. But even granting that they will, their influence cannot be what it heretofore has been. Even then, they cannot be so universally known nor so vividl}^ felt as they were by the generation just gone to rest. At the close of that struggle, nearly every adult male had been a partici- pator in some of its scenes. * ' The consequence Vv^as, that of those scenes, in the form of a husband, a father, a son, or a brother, a living history was to be found in every family — a history bear- ing the indubitable testimonies to its own authenticity in the limbs mangled, in the scars of wounds received in the midst of the very scene related ; a history, too, that could be read and understood alike by all, the wise and the ignorant, the learned and the unlearned. But those histories are gone. They can be read no more forever. They were a fortress of strength ; but what the invading foeman could never do, the silent artillery of that time has done — the levelling of its walls. They are gone. They were a forest of giant oaks ; but the resistless hurricane has swept over them and left only here and there a lonely trunk despoiled of its v^erdure, shorn of its foliage ; unshading and unshaded, to mur- mur in a few more gentle breezes and to combat with its mutilated limbs a few more ruder storms, then to sink and be no more." A little later, in 1839, there was a remarkable debate in the Illinois I^egislature, in which the Democratic disputants were Stephen A. Douglas, John Calhoun, Josiah Lamborn, and Jesse B. Thomas. The Whig speakers were Stephen T. I^ogan, Edward D. Baker, The Young Politician ^ 57 Orville H. Browning, and Abraham I/incoln. All of these men were conspicuous figures in Illinois politics, and most of them became celebrated throughout the country in after years. During the debate, one of the speakers taunted the other side with the hopelessness of their cause and the fewness of their numbers. In replying to him, Lincoln said : " Address that argu- ment to cowards and knaves. With the free and the brave it will affect nothing. It may be true; if it must, let it. Many free countries have lost their liberty, and ours may lose hers ; but, if she shall, let it be my proudest plume, not .that I was the last to desert, but that I never deserted her." Martin Van Buren was then President, and all who opposed his administration were denounced and perse- cuted with a virulence unknown in these more liberal days. Alluding to this Lincoln said : ** Bow to it I never will. Here, before heaven, and in the face of the world, I swear eternal fidelity to the just cause of the land of mj' life, my liberty, and my love. . . . The cause approved of by our judgment and our hearts, in disaster, in chains, in death, we never faltered in defending." In 1840, the country was deeply stirred by the presi- dential campaign of that year. Martin Van Buren was nominated by the Democrats, and General William H. Harrison by the Whigs. Lincoln was one of the presi- dential electors on the Harrison ticket, and he took a lively interest in the canvass, making speeches and going on long expeditions for the sake of his candidate. Harrison lived in Ohio, where he had been one of the earlier pioneers. The dwelling of the pioneer, of course, was a log cabin ; his favorite drink was sup- posed to be ''hard" or sour, fermented apple-cider. 58 Abraham Lincoln In a very short time, the Harrison campaign became the *' I^og-Cabin and Hard-Cider" campaign. Even in the staid, old-fashioned cities and towns of the Eastern States, log cabins were built for rallying- places. Barrels of hard cider were kept on tap, and, instead of the customary tin cup for drinking purposes, gourds were ostentatiously hung out. Coon-skins were nailed on the outer walls of these sj^mbolic log cabins. In some places, extravagant expedients were resorted to in order to rouse public enthusiasm. In Boston, for example, a huge ball was made by covering a wood framework, some fifty feet in circumference, with painted cloth ; and on it was the legend, ' ' This is the ball that is rolling on." The novel device was rolled through the streets of the city, on the occasion of a log-cabin parade, the big ball being guided by ropes hitched to its axis. Campaign songsters, flags, and all sorts of inventions to stir up the people were scattered broadcast all over the country. At a great meeting in Springfield, Edward Baker, lyincoln's close friend, was speaking in a large room next below the floor on which was I^incoln's ofiice. A trap-door, once used for ventilating purposes, was cut in the ceiling over the spot where the speaker stood. Lincoln raised this slightly and listened to Baker's harangue. Presently, Baker, losing his temper, as- sailed the Democrats very hotly, and, as some of these were present, they made a rush for the speaker, crying: " Pull him off the platform ! " To their intense sur- prise, the trap-door was lifted, and a pair of large feet, well known by their proportions, appeared ; then legs, and finally a bod}^, slid down, and lyincoln stood there defiantly by the side of Baker. Quieting the rising tide by a wave of his hand, lyincoln said : ' ' Gentlemen, The Young Politician 59 let us not disgrace the age and country in which we live. This is a laud where freedom of speech is guar- anteed. Baker has a right to speak, and a right to be permitted to do so. I am here to protect him, and no man shall take him from this stand if I can prevent it." Lincoln had sufficient reputation for courage and muscle, as well as for fairness, to warrant that Baker should have no further interruption. CHAPTER VII WINNING HIS WAY WHILE Lincoln was living in New Salem, he be- came tenderly attached to a young lady of that village, Miss Ann Rutledge. It is not known that the pair were ever engaged to be married, but it is known that a very cordial affection existed between the twain. At that time, Lincoln, who was ever look- ing on the dark and practical side of life, was in no condition to marry ; he was not onlj^ poor, but was burdened with debts, and with a very uncertain future before him. It is hardly likely that he would have engaged himself to marry while his prospects in life were so very dim and discouraging. But Miss Rut- ledge died suddenly, while yet in the bloom of youth. This sad event impressed Lincoln with the deepest melancholy, and was to him a forcible lesson in the vanity of human expectations. Lincoln was never what is called ** a lad3^'s man." He delighted in the society and conversation of culti- vated and sprightl}^ women always, but he was obliged to live laborious days, and sit up far into the night pur- suing his studies, his reading, his course of thought. In 1840, however, there came to Springfield from Ken- tucky his destin)^ in the person of Miss Mary Todd, a daughter of Robert Todd. It was one of her relatives, 60 Winning his Way 6i John Todd, who, at the breaking out of the Revolution, was encamped near the site of the present city of Lexington, Kentucky. Hearing from the far East the news of the battle of Lexington, he bestowed on the settlement yet unborn the title it wears to this day. Mary Todd was courted and flattered by the young men of Springfield, and as the young ladies of those da3^s were much interested in politics, she soon made the acquaintance of Abraham Lincoln, then regarded as a rising man. It will never be known just how a matrimonial engagement between Lincoln and Miss Todd became settled and then unsettled. It may be sufficient for us to know that, after the engagement was fixed, there was a misunderstanding, and Lincoln released the young lady from the engagement, but that she declined to be released. Immediately after, he fell into a state of the most profound melancholy. While he was in this pitiable plight, his friend, Joshua F. Speed, returned to Kentucky, taking Lincoln with him. There, in the restful quiet of the Speed mansion, Lin- coln recovered his mental health and vigor, and then returned to Springfield. At that time a well-known character in the city was James Shields, a brisk and hot-headed young man from the County Tyrone, Ireland. Shields was an active Democrat, who had lately been elected State Auditor, an office of some importance, with a good income at- tached to it. Lincoln anonymously printed in the Sa7igamon Jotirnal a witty letter purporting to come from " The Lost Townships," in which the writer, a pretended widow with political ideas in her head, be- wailed the hard times and the evil results of Democratic rule. In that letter some satirical allusions were made 62 Abraham Lincoln to the heady young Democratic Auditor, who was a fair mark for ridicule, being of a sensitive and fiery dis- position. Shields was frantic with rage. He vapored through the town, threatening death and destruction to the unknown author of the satire. The shot was followed by another, in which the widow of ' * The Lost Townships ' ' offered to square matters by marrying Shields. These two letters, which were the talk of the town, so tickled the fancy of Miss Todd and another young lady that they concocted a series of lampoons, verses, and skits, all of which, like the little barbed weapons flung by a bull-fighter, were designed to infuriate the rearing and plunging Shields. In a rage, he went to the editor of the journal, and de- manded to know the name of the author of these at- tacks. The editor, in great distress of mind, applied to Lincoln for advice. Shields would fight. The editor would not fight. Lincoln told him to say that Abraham Lincoln was responsible for the whole busi- ness from first to last. Being so informed. Shields challenged Lincoln to mortal combat. Lincoln accepted. Shields was a famous boaster. He and his friends made great ado about the coming duel, so that the affair was very widel}^ advertised. Lincoln, being the challenged party, had the choice of weapons, and he chose " cavalry broadswords of the largest size." If he had really desired to hew down Shields, he might have done so, for, in his stout hands and with his long arms, he could have mowed down any man of ordinary build before he could have got near Lincoln. But the fight did not come off. At the last moment. Shields was readj^ to accept from Lincoln the explanation that the letters from ' ' The Lost Townships ' ' were only winning his Way 63 intended for political effect and not to reflect on the per- sonal character of Mr. Shields. The quarrel ended without humiliation to Lincoln except so far as he felt humbled by having been drawn into a silly fracas in which nobody could gain any credit. Lincoln had occasion during the Rebellion to reprimand a young officer of the Army who had been brought before a court-martial for a quarrel with a brother ofificer. Possibly, these words, addressed to the culprit, may have been suggested by his own unwelcome experience: *' The advice of a father to his son, * Beware of en- trance to a quarrel, but being in, bear it that the op- posed may beware of thee ! ' is good, but not the best. Quarrel not at all. No man resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention. Still less can he afford to take all the consequences, includ- ing the vitiating of his temper and the loss of self-con- trol. Yield larger things to which you can show no more than equal right ; and yield lesser ones though clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog than be bitten by him in contesting for the right. Kven killing the dog would not cure the bite." But, out of the Shields affair, we may understand, issued the marriage of Lincoln and Miss Todd. The young lady was bright, vivacious, and roguish. Her knight had shown his readiness to fight for her, al- though, with genuine Kentucky spirit, she had de- clared her own willingness to cross weapons with the redoubtable young Irishman, if need be. The paper duel took place late in September ; the young couple were married November 4, 1840. The newly married pair took lodgings in the Globe Tavern, a well-known and modest boarding-place not far from the State- House. In a letter written to a friend about this time, 64 Abraham Lincoln lyincoln speaks of his happiness in the married state, and of his comforts. Mrs. lyincohi's good management and thoughtfulness admirably supplemented her hus- band's unworldly absent-mindedness. They were always what some people call " an old-fashioned couple," content with each other, a devoted husband and wnfe, to the end of their life together. The log-cabin campaign having terminated to Lin- coln's satisfaction in the election of Harrison, he spent the winter of his first year of marriage verj^ happily, as well as very busily. Yet he found time to write an occasional newspaper article on the growing power of the political South, and, later on, to compose and de- liver a very excellent temperance address. About this time, too, he wrote a lecture for a lyceum, designed to show that there was nothing new under the sun, that everything that was claimed as a new invention had existed at some period, possibly very remote, in the histor}^ of the world. Lincoln never, even to the day of his death, could be persuaded to partake of spirits or wine. He set out in life, surrounded by drunkards and moderate tipplers, determined that he would resist the temptation to drink of these insidious beverages. He made no promises, but, after a few years of manhood (as he used to say), when his associates had become accus- tomed to his abstemious habits, he had neither temp- tation nor desire to drink. Lincoln's lecture was delivered in the Second Presbyterian Church, Spring- field, February 22, 1842. In it he refers to the drink- ing usages of society in these words : *' Let us see. I have not inquired at what period of time the use of intoxicating liquors commenced ; nor is it important to know. It is suflScient that to all of Winning his Way 65 us who now inhabit the world, the practice of drinking them is just as old as the world itself — that is, we have seen the one just as long as we have seen the other. When all such of us as have now reached the years of maturity first opened our eyes upon the stage of exist- ence, we found intoxicating liquor recognized by every- body, used by everybody, repudiated by nobody. It commonly entered into the first draught of the infant, and the last draught of the dying man. From the side- board of the parson down to the ragged pocket of the homeless loafer, it was constantly found. Physicians prescribed it in this, that, and the other disease; Govern- ment provided it for soldiers and sailors ; and to have a rolling or raising, a husking or * hoe-down ' anywhere about without it was positively insufferable. So, too, it was everywhere a respectable article of manufacture and merchandise. The making of it was regarded as an honorable livelihood, and he who could make most was the most enterprising and respectable. Large and small manufactories of it were everywhere erected, in which all the earthly goods of their owners were in- vested. Wagons drew it from town to town ; boats bore it from clime to clime, and the winds wafted it from nation to nation ; and merchants bought and sold it, by wholesale and retail, with precisely the same feelings, on the part of the seller, buyer, and by- stander, as are felt at the selling and buying of ploughs, beef, bacon, or any other of the real necessities of life. Universal public opinion not only tolerated, but recog- nized and adopted its use." In June, 1842, Lincoln met the much-hated Martin Van Buren, then out of ofiice. He was accustomed to say that it was no wonder that Van Buren's admirers called him " the little magician," for Van Buren's 66 Abraham Lincoln manners were so aflfable and delightful that '' lie could charm the birds ofif the trees." But, if I^incoln was pleased with Van Buren, the ex-President was no less gratified by his meeting with the young Whig leader of central Illinois. Being weather-bound at a small town not far from Springfield, the ex-President was forced to remain overnight. Some of his Springfield friends, hearing of Mr. Van Buren's plight, made up a party, and taking with them some refreshments, left Springfield for the village aforementioned. Knowing Lincoln's good-nature, as well as his powers of enter- taining, they besought his assistance to lighten the weary hours of the ex-President's stay at the wretched inn, where he was detained. Lincoln, always ready to do a good turn, went out with the party, and enter- tained the wayfarers far into the night with Western anecdotes, funny stories, and graphic descriptions of wild life on the frontier. Van Buren, delighted, said " the only drawback to his enjoyment was that his sides were sore for a week thereafter, from laughing at Lin- coln's stories." Lincoln had long desired to go to Congress ; but it so happened that his dearest friends, also Whigs, were equally anxious to go from the Sangamon district. The district was strongly Whig, and a nomination was almost an election. But Lincoln, always preferring his friend before himself, loyally supported each of his most intimate associates, and thought his to be the better claim. On one occasion, having been a candi- date for the nomination to Congress, Lincoln was elected as a delegate to the nominating convention, and was instructed to vote for E. D. Baker. Of this predicament he good-naturedly said : * * I shall be fixed a good deal like the fellow who is made groomsman to Winning his Way 67 the man who cut him out and is marrying his girl." At this time, 1842, John J. Hardin was nominated and elected. He was one of I^incoln's truest friends ; he was subsequently killed at the battle of Buena Vista, during the Mexican War. CHAPTER VIII THE RISING POI.ITICIAN IT was said of Lincoln that he was a born politician and that, as a political prophet, he made few mis- takes. But he was deeply and overwhelmingly disap- pointed, in 1844, when Henry Clay was defeated for the presidency by James K. Polk of Tennessee. The defeat was unexpected, and its very unexpectedness made it harder to bear. Lincoln was accustomed to refer to the defeat of Clay as one of his keenest per- sonal sorrows. It is very likely, however, that the edge of this grief was made less sharp by Clay's own conduct. In 1846, Lincoln, learning that Clay w^asto speak in Lexington, Kentucky, made a pilgrimage to that place in order to hear the voice, grasp the hand, and look in the mag- netic eyes of his adored leader. Clay's speech was on the subject of colonizing Africa with emancipated American slaves, an expedient then attracting much attention as a possible solution of the problem of American slavery. Clay's speech, on this occasion, was written out and was read in a cold manner. Lin- coln, who had come so far to hear what was a very commonplace address, was disappointed. Neverthe- less, when the meeting was dissolved, he sought the much-wished-for introduction to Clay, and was invited 68 The Rising Politician 69 to Ashland, the seat of the Clay family. But more disillusion was in store for him. Clay was proud, dis- tant, and haughty in his manner, and he evidently re- garded Lincoln as a clodhopper, a rude backwoodsman, whose personal affection for " the great Whig chief" must be rewarded by a few curt words of welcome. He was conceited in himself, impatient of suggestions or advice from others, self-sufficient. Lincoln was humble, conscious of his own shortcomings, and his invariable habit was to defer to others. Clay accepted the deference offered him as his due, while Lincoln felt that his hero-worship was an egregious blunder. He went back to Springfield, as he afterwards expressed it, '* with the enthusiasm all oozed out of him." The man who was to be President had learned a lesson from him who never could be President. In 1846, Lincoln was nominated for Congress, and one object of his ambition was within reach. His com- petitor on the Democratic ticket was Peter Cartwright, a backwoods preacher and exhorter, famous in his time for the vigor with which he pursued every topic to which he addressed himself. It was thought that Cartwright would poll a very much larger vote than that usually given to a Democratic candidate in the district, and possibly might be elected. But Lincoln astonished his opponents by the fulness of his vote. His majority over Cartwright was sixteen hundred and eleven, considerably more than any other Whig candi- date had a right to expect. When Lincoln took the * ' stump ' ' for himself in the canvass, he had a plenty of material for his addresses to the people. During the preceding winter, the new State of Texas had been admitted to the Union, a meas- ure to which Lincoln, and other Whigs were bitterly 70 Abraham Lincoln opposed. Texas had first seceded from Mexico, and, after a sharp war, had gained something that was akin to independence. At least, the war was temporarily suspended, according to Mexican notions of the position of affairs, and the new State proposed to join the family of the United States. After various expedients had been tried without success, the Democratic administra- tion finally did secure the annexation of Texas. This was done in order that a new slave State might be added to the Union. The increase of population in the North, so much more rapid than it was in the South, made it necessar}^ that something should be done to maintain the political strength of the slave States. The work of achieving the independence of Texas was accomplished largely by Americans, and with no other purpose than to bring the young republic into the Union. The resulting war and a reduction of the tariff, for which the Democrats were responsible, gave the Whigs ammunition for their campaign ; and I^in- coln used it vigorously in his canvass. The Congress to which Lincoln was elected w^as the Thirtieth, and Lincoln took his seat in it December 6, 1847. H^ ^^^ very much at home there, for he had then been repeatedly a member of the State Legislature, had '* stumped" Illinois from one end to the other, had made a great many public speeches, had met all the leading men of that region, and had been accus- tomed to hold his own in debate. He was familiar with all the great questions, had debated them before the people, and had so studied the historj^ of his coun- try that he knew all that had happened to lead up to the crisis in which the republic then found itself — with a foreign war on its hands and a new State in the Union — the admission of which a great many public men, in The Rising Politician 71 and out of Congress, regarded as a misfortune to the republic. James K. Polk was President of the United States. Disappointed that the Mexican question had not been disposed of before he took ofl&ce, he shaped his messages to Congress so as to show that the war with Mexico was a just one, and that he had been right in all that he had done to make that war inevitable. lyincoln saw the inconsistency of the President's position, and, as soon as he had fairly become used to his seat, he intro- duced a series of resolutions asking the President for information. These resolutions were prefaced by a clear statement of the situation, as it appeared to him, together with sundry extracts from the President's messages of that year and the year next preceding. The aim of these resolutions will be seen by quoting the first three, as follows : '' That the President of the United States be respect- fully requested to inform this house : '* FirsL Whether the spot on which the blood of our citizens was shed, as in his messages declared, was or was not within the territory of Spain, at least after the treaty of 18 19, until the Mexican revolution. '* Second. Whether this spot is or is not within the territory which was wrested from Spain by the revo- lutionary government of Mexico. "■ Third. Whether that spot is or is not within a settlement of people, which settlement has existed ever since long before the Texas revolution and until its in- habitants fled before the approach of the United States army." It was seen that if the President's friends should undertake to reply, and admit the real facts, the posi- tion taken by Mr. Polk, and those who defended the 72 Abraham Lincoln war, would be surrendered. So, not being able to make answer to the only Whig representative from Illinois, the tall backwoods lawyer, they contented themselves with giving him a nickname. As he had used the word * ' spot ' ' several times in the resolutions and in his speech, he was known for a time, at least, as '* Spot Lincoln." The speech was a masterly one, reviewing the causes of the Mexican War and severely arraigning the administration for persisting in the an- nexation of Texas, and thus involving the country in a bloody and causeless fight with Mexico. It is well to bear in mind that there were many emi- nent men in Congress in those days. In the Senate were Daniel Webster, Lewis Cass, John A. Dix, Thomas H. Benton, John C. Calhoun, Jefferson Davis, Stephen Arnold Douglas, and other well-known statesmen. In the House of Representatives were such men as ex- President John Quincy Adams, Caleb B. Smith, after- wards a member of Lincoln's Cabinet, John G. Palfrey, Robert C. Winthrop, Andrew Johnson, elected Vice- President of the United States when Lincoln was chosen for his second term ; Alexander H. Stephens, afterwards Vice-President of the Southern Confederacy; Robert Toombs, the Southern slave-holder who prom- ised to have his slaves mustered to roll-call on Bunker Hill ; Howell Cobb, afterwards a general in the rebel army, and mau}^ others famous in the stormy times then making ready in the distance. In this illustrious company of legislators, Lincoln was recognized as a man of marked ability. Speaking of him, Alexander H. Stephens said : *' He always attracted and riveted the attention of the House when he spoke. His manner of speech, as well as thought, was original. He had no model. He The Rising Politician '^^ was a man of strong convictions and what Carlyle would have called an earnest man. He abounded in anecdote. He illustrated every thing he was talking about with an anecdote, always exceedingly apt and pointed ; and socially he always kept his company in a roar of laughter. ' ' Lincoln took part in the debates of the House rather more frequently than most new members do. Some of his speeches, to be found in the printed record of Con- gress, show characteristic touches of humor. Speak- ing of the attempt to make a military hero of General Lewis Cass, who was to be the next Democratic candi- date for President, and who was said to have been an important figure in a small fight on the Canadian border, Lincoln said, with rough sarcasm : '' He in- vaded Canada without resistance, and he f7?^/vaded without pursuit. . . . He was volunteer aid to General Harrison on the day of the battle of the Thames, and as you said in 1840, that Harrison was picking whortle- berries, two miles off", while the battle was fought, I suppose it is a just conclusion with you to say that Cass was aiding Harrison to pick whortleberries." It is to be noticed that Lincoln, while he disapproved of the Mexican War, always voted to reward the bravery of the soldiers who fought the battles and who were not in any way responsible for the war. Later, when he and Douglas were holding a political discussion, Douglas reproached Lincoln with being an enemy of his country during the Mexican War. Lincoln replied : *' I was an old Whig, and when the Democratic party tried to get me to vote that the war had been righteously begun by the President, I would not do it. But when they asked for money, or land warrants, or any thing to pay the soldiers, I gave the same vote that Douglas did. ' ' 74 Abraham Lincoln If this was true of the Whigs, the Democratic Presi- dent was also in great perplexity. Speaking of the President's struggles to set himself right when he knew that he was wrong Lincoln said : " He knows not where he is. . . . All this shows that the President is by no means satisfied with his positions. First, he takes up one, and, in attempting to argue us into it, he argues himself out of it. Then he seizes another, and goes through the same process ; and then, confused at being able to think of nothing new, he snatches up the old one again, which he has some time before cast off. His mind, tasked beyond its powers, is running hither and thither, like some tortured thing on a burning sur- face, finding no position on which it can settle down and be at ease." This speech was made in the House of Representa- tives after Taylor had been nominated at Philadelphia by the Whigs in 1848. Clay had been supported in that convention as a candidate more fit than Taylor ; but Taylor had won fame on the field of Buena Vista, during the Mexican War, and he had not been in favor of carrying that war forward to the banks of the Rio Grande, the disputed boundary between Texas and Mexico. He was urged in the convention as the most available man for the nomination, and the word " availability " was repeated with much scorn by Mr. Clay's friends afterwards. Lincoln was a delegate to the convention, and he was enthusiastically in favor of "The Hero of Buena Vista," as General Taylor was styled by his admirers. General Taylor's manners were very blunt, and won for him the title of ' ' Rough and Ready, ' ' the battle- cry of the campaign. Indeed, the Whigs resorted to all the tricks and devices that had made the '' Log- The Rising Politician 75 Cabin and Hard-Cider" campaign of Harrison and Tyler so successful. Lincoln, in a letter to a friend, written a few daj^s after the Philadelphia Convention, said that the Whigs would have ' ' a most overwhelm- ing and glorious triumph," and he added : *' One un- mistakable sign is that all the odds and ends are with us — Barn-Burners, Native Americans, Tyler men, dis- appointed office-seeking Loco-Focos, and the Lord knows what. This is important, if in nothing else, in showing which way the wind blows." This queer list of party factions shows how parties were then beginning to break up. The Barn-Burners were the anti-slavery seceders from the Democratic party in New York. The Tyler men were those who adhered to the fortunes and alleged principles of John Tyler, who, having been elected Vice-President with General Harrison by the Whigs, afterwards became President by the death of Harrison, and then went over to the Democratic party, taking with him a frac- tion of his own party. In August of that year, 1848, the New York anti-slavery Democrats assembled at Buffalo, New York, and organized the Free-Soil party. It was pledged, not to the abolition of slavery, but to its restriction to the territory it already occupied. This new party was determined that the soil of the Territories then in existence, and thereafter to be acquired, should be free; that there should be no more slave labor outside of the States in which slavery ex- isted, and that every citizen of the United States should have full liberty to speak his sentiments concerning any topic before the people, even concerning slavery. The battle-cry of the Free Soilers in that canvass was " Free Soil, Free Labor, and Free Speech." They nominated Martin Van Buren for President and Charles Francis 76 Abraham Lincoln Adams for Vice-President. The Free Soilers of that day included Salmon P. Chase, afterwards Chief -Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States ; Charles Sumner; Henry Wilson, afterwards Senator from Mas- sachusetts, and Vice-President during Grant's second administration ; William Cullen Bryant ; John P. Hale, then and afterwards a Senator from New Hampshire ; and many others who became better known as Republicans, when they had ceased to be Free Soilers. The Democrats, meantime, had nominated for Presi- dent Lewis Cass, a gentleman who had had a slight taste of war in the skirmish known as the battle of the Thames. As the Whig candidate was hurrahed for as a militarj^ hero, the Democrats attempted very unsuc- cessfully to give Cass a military reputation. The slavery question, on the other hand, could no longer be kept down, although it had been judiciously^ omitted from the platforms of the Whigs and the Democrats. The Free Soilers were sufi&ciently outspoken in their platform, and the speakers of the other two parties, after all, were obliged to say something about the great but much-dreaded question. William H. Seward, afterwards Senator and Secretary of State, said, in a speech supporting Tajdor's candidacy: *' Freedom and slavery are two antagonistic elements of society in America. . . . The party of freedom seeks complete and universal emancipation." Daniel Webster, who also supported Taylor, insisted that the Whigs were the real Free Soilers. Lincoln avowed himself to be " a Northern man, or, rather, a Western Free-State man, with a constituency I believe to be, and with per- sonal feelings I know to be, against the extension of slavery." The Rising Politician ']'] The congressional recess began in August, and lyin- coln went immediately to New England, where he took the stump for Taylor. His speeches were characterized by their keenness of analysis, wit, humor, and un- answerable logic. He was in close communication with the Whig leaders in Illinois, and continually wrote them, giving them advice, counsel, and hints for the conduct of the campaign. To his partner, W. H. Herndon, he says : " Let every one play the part he can play best. Some can speak, some can sing, and all can halloo." When he had filled his engagements in New England and New York, he returned at once to Illinois, where he threw himself into the canvass with great fervor, speaking day and night until the election, which occurred in November, 1848. When the votes were counted, it was found that General Taylor was elected, having 163 electors, while Cass had 137. Van Buren, not having carried any one State, had no electors. There was general satis- faction all over the North, for it was felt that the elec- tion of Taylor would, somehow, prevent the further extension of slavery. In fact, although probably very few saw it, the triumph of the Whigs, assisted by the Free-Soil party, was making ready for the formation of a new party that was to bring to pass what none then thought possible — the abolition of slavery. It should be borne in mind that the votes cast for Van Buren would have elected Cass, had they all been given to him ; and the bulk of those votes had come out of the Democratic party. When Congress reassembled in December of that year, the aspect of things was materially changed. The Whigs were no longer in a hopeless minority in the country, and the Northern Democrats, who yS Abraham Lincoln believed that they had been sacrificed in the interest of Southern slaverj^, were angry and sullen. One of these, Mr. Root, of Ohio, very soon caused a great uproar by introducing a resolution in favor of organiz- ing the new Territories, California and New Mexico, with constitutions that should exclude slavery. The Territories in question had been acquired by the treaty with Mexico ; and it had been hoped and expected by the South that slavery would be extended there, as it had been in Texas. The resolution, however, got no farther than the Senate, where it was killed by the slavery majority. In this, as in all measures designed to cripple the institution of slavery, lyincoln voted with the friends of freedom, although he did not take an active part in the debate. Later in the session, he introduced a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. He thought it a shame and a disgrace that traflSc in slaves should be carried on right under the shadow of the Capitol. His heart was stirred with indignation to see gangs of slaves, handcuffed and linked in chains, pass- ing through the streets of Washington on the way to the South. His bill provided that no person from without the District should be held to slavery in it ; and that no person hereafter born in the District should be held in slavery anywhere. It also provided for the gradual emancipation of the slaves then in the District, the owners of the same being paid for them by the Gov- ernment of the United States. But the bill was framed so that it might, if possible, pass Congress, not as an expression of what I^incoln thought was j ust and right to the slave and the slave-holder. But, temperate though the bill was, it excited a storm of The Rising Politician 79 opposition. The Southern members were determined that no bill that was calculated to weaken slavery in any way, or to imply that slavery was not everything that was lovely and of good report, should ever pass Con- gress, if they could help it. Lincoln's bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia never came to a vote. Soon after, Congress adjourned and Lincoln, his term of office being out, went home to Illinois. Lincoln was not a candidate for re-election. As his was the only Whig district in the State, and was full of ambitious and able men who were Whigs, it had be- come the custom of the party to give the office of Con- gress to no man twice in succession. Edward D. Baker, Lincoln's intimate friend, had just returned from the Mexican War, covered with the honors he had gained on the battle-field of Cerro Gordo. He was nominated and elected to succeed Lincoln. For the first and last time in his life, Lincoln became an applicant for an appointive office. Taylor was now President, and, according to the custom of the time, all the Democrats were to be turned out of office and their places given to Whigs who had done service in the campaign. Lincoln, with a plenty of ideas con- cerning public improvements and with some experience as a surve3^or of lands, thought he would like to be the Commissioner of the General Land Office, a place in which he would have charge of the sale and distribu- tion of the lands belonging to the United States Gov- ernment. To the surprise of his friends and to his own great disappointment, Lincoln was refused the office he sought, but was offered that of Governor of the Territory of Oregon. This place, however, he de- clined. It was not to his taste, and, moreover, Mrs. Lincoln was decidedly opposed to going to the Pacific 8o Abraham Lincoln coast. The bait held out to Lincoln at that time was that Oregon would soon come into the Union as a State and that he could probably return as a United States Senator. This glittering prospect . made him pause until his wife's opposition determined him. It is a curious coincidence that, when Lincoln was President, Edward D. Baker went to Oregon and was elected United States Senator from that State. When Lincoln returned to Springfield from Con- gress, he found his law practice fallen away so that, to use his own expression, he had to begin all over again. But he had gained reputation during his congressional term, and he rebuilt his practice with ready skill and untiring industry. He had bought a house and lot in Springfield, and there established himself and his fam- ily under a roof of his own, which he was never to leave until he went to take up his residence in the White House at Washington. His was a pleasant and sunny home, where love and order reigned. In the society of his children Lincoln took great delight. It cannot be said that his was a stern rule. It was well-nigh impossible for him to ex- ercise any right of government with his children. They were passionately fond of their father ; but it must be admitted that censorious visitors sometimes went away wondering why he so " indulged " his boys. His eldest son, Robert Todd, had been born in 1843, Edward Baker in 1846, William Wallace in 1850, and Thomas, April 4, 1853. Of these Edward died in infancy ; William died while his father was President ; and Thomas survived his father, dying at the age of nineteen. The eldest, Robert, Secretary of War under Garfield and under Arthur, is the sole survivor of the family. ^^toaER A Difficult Military Situation 167 Lee's army was being massed to crush Pope, in whose hands had been left the defence of the capital. The Peninsular Campaign had already come to a standstill ; but the slow-moving McClellan did not use this chance against Richmond, nor to support Pope ; nor, indeed, did he reach Washington until the last of August, a month after he received positive orders to move thither. Meantime Pope had been hopelessly beaten, and once more McClellan had an opportunity offered him to achieve a great success. Yielding to what seemed a military necessity, lyincoln placed him at the head of a newly re-organized army. He now had under him the Army of the Potomac, the remnants of Pope's Army of Virginia, and the forces brought from North Caro- lina by General Burnside. To these were added rein- forcements from the raw levies, making the force under McClellan the largest that had ever been massed to- gether in one army — more than two hundred thousand, all told. If ever " the young Napoleon " was to win laurels, this was his time and opportunity. Meantime McClellan did not seize the precious oppor- tunity to strike Lee's army while it was divided ; and he allowed Harper's Ferry to fall unrelieved, on the 15th of September. Two days later, finally roused, he attacked Lee at Antietam and beat him. It would appear that McClellan might have followed, one entire corps of his army not having been in the fight. But he remained where he was, and called for more reinforcements. This amazing demand, follow- ing the delay to move, alarmed the President, and he made a personal visit to the army to see for himself how aff"airs stood. On his return to Washington he issued an order directing McClellan to " cross the 1 68 Abraham Lincoln Potomac and give battle to the enemy or drive him south." This order McClellan declined to obey. On the tenth of that month, J. K. B. Stuart, a dashing rebel cavalry officer, crossed the Potomac, going as far north as Chambersburg, Penns3dvania, which he raided, and made the entire circuit of McClellan' s army before he re-crossed into Virginia. A few days after this daring exploit, which McClel- lan had confidently predicted would end in his " bag- ging " the whole of Stuart's command, Lincoln wrote a long and friendly letter to McClellan, in which he begged for a forward movement, arguing the case from a military point of view with much acuteness. Still McClellan did not move. He complained that his horses were fatigued, and had the ' ' sore tongue. ' ' Lin- coln could not help asking what his cavalry had done since the battle of Antietam, fought more than a month before, that they should be fatigued. McClellan showed that he resented this home thrust, and Lincoln, ready to plead his own desire to be exactly just, wrote to the General to say that he was very sorry if he had done the General any injustice. He added, however : "To be told, after five weeks' total inactivity of the army, and during which period we had sent to that army every fresh horse we possibly could, amounting in the whole to 7918, that the cavalry horses were too fatigued to move, presented a cheerless, almost hope- less, prospect for the future." It may be added to this that the winter was now close at hand, when active operations in the field, always difficult, would be im- possible under McClellan' s command. Finally, on the 5th of November, 1862, just one month after the order to cross had been issued, the army did cross the Potomac. By this time, of course, A Difficult Military Situation 169 the rebels, recoveriug from their defeat at Antietam, were ready for battle or for a retreat. It was too late. General McClellau was relieved from command of the Army of the Potomac on the 5th of November, and was ordered to Trenton, New Jersey. His military career was closed; and we hear no more of him until he emerged, in 1864, as the presidential candidate of the Democratic party. Lincoln again and again was urged by the impatient and fiery spirits around him to remove McClellan and subject him to trial by court-martial for repeated disobe- dience of orders. Even those who did not advise these extreme measures with the General counselled the President to withdraw McClellan from command. But Lincoln knew that many of the subordinate commanders in the Army of the Potomac were warm champions of McClellan' s military genius, believers in his mysterious power to win great victories. They would support any other commander with lukewarmness, if they sup- ported him at all. The country was slow to give up its faith in the young General, and Lincoln was reluctant to remove McClellan while he yet had a chance to retrieve him- self. He let him remain to encourage popular and military confidence. Not until McClellan had worn out his reputation was he removed. The year closed in gloom. Burnside had come in McClellan 's place, and had gone his way after the crushing defeat at Fredericksburg. Nor was the mili- tary situation in the West for the moment any more hopeful. Congress was divided into factions. The Cabinet was not wholly harmonious. The loyal press of the country was bitter and arrogant in its criticisms of the Administration. 1 70 Abraham Lincoln In the army there were mutterings of discontent. General Hooker openly derided Burnside as " a butch- er," and declared that he had fought the battle of Fredericksburg on his " deportment." Others of the army began to say that the country needed a dictator, a military hero. An old ofl&cer of the army was ar- rested for saying publicly that the Army of the Poto- mac, with *' little Mac " at its head, should " clean out Congress and the White House." In the midst of these depressing scenes and rumors, Lincoln alone was calm, resolute, and uncomplaining. He never for an instant relaxed his efforts to push the war ; never fal- tered, even in the face of what seemed inevitable de- feat. To a sympathizing friend who asked how he was getting on with a prosecution of the war, he sadly and grimly said : '' Oh, I am just pegging away." And, long after, when the war was well-nigh over, and another friend congratulated him on his pluck and en- durance in sticking to the work when all seemed hope- less, he said : '' Well, there was nothing else to be done." On the 26th of January, 1863, Lincoln wrote to Gen- eral Hooker the following characteristic letter : "Executive Mansion, "Washington, D. C, January 26, 1863. ** Major-General Hooker : '* General — I have placed you at the head of the Army of the Potomac. Of course I have done this upon what appear to me to be sufficient reasons, and yet I think it best for you to know that there are some things in regard to which I am not satisfied with you. I believe you to be a brave and skilful soldier, which of course I like. I also believe that you do not mix A Difficult Military Situation 171 politics with your profession, in which you are right. You have confidence in yourself, which is a valuable, if not indispensable, quality. You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good rather than harm ; but I think that during General Burnside's command of the army you have taken counsel of your ambition and thwarted him as much as you could, in which you did a great wrong to the country and to a most meritorious and honorable brother oflBcer. I have heard, in such a way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the army and the govern- ment needed a dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those generals who gain success can be dictators. What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship. The government will support you to the utmost of its abilit}^ which is neither more nor less than it has done and will do for all com- manders. I much fear that the spirit which you have aided to infuse into the army, of criticising their com- mander and withholding confidence from him, will now turn upon you. I shall assist j^ou as far as I can to put it down. Neither you nor Napoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good out of an army while such a spirit prevails in it. And now, beware of rash- ness. Beware of rashness, but, with energy and sleep- less vigilance, go forward and give us victories. Yours, very truly, A. lylNCOIyN." It must be said that this brotherly and almost affec- tionate letter, while it was appreciated by its recipient, did not strike him as being particularly pertinent and well deserved. Just before the battle of Chancellors- 172 Abraham Lincoln ville, while Lincoln and a few personal friends were at the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac on a visit, General Hooker said to one of the party, in the privacy of his tent, late at night : " I suppose you have seen this letter, or a copy of it ? " The gentle- man replied that he had, and Hooker, with that mag- nificent air that characterized him, • said : "After I have been to Richmond I shall have the letter pub- lished in the newspapers. It will be amusing." When this was told to Lincoln, he said, with a sigh : " Poor Hooker ! I am afraid he is incorrigible." The battle of Chancellorsville, however, was another and yet more crushing disaster. Up to a certain point, all went well with the army ; but, that being reached, the plan of campaign seemed to crumble and nothing further was done. There was some delay in returning the army to the north bank of the Rappahannock after the repulse that nearly had ended the campaign. No news reached Washington, and an expectation that Hooker would ev^en yet retrieve the admitted disaster was entertained. Lincoln clung desperately to this hope. But after vainlj^ seeking for information from the army, Lincoln received, early in the afternoon of May 6th, a despatch from General Butterfield, Hooker's Chief of Staff, announcing that the Army of the Poto- mac had safely recrossed the Rappahannock and was then encamped on its old ground. The President seemed stunned. Taking the despatch in his hand, he passed into another room in the White House, where were two of his intimate friends who had been with him during the recent inspection of the army, and handing it to one of them, he said, by a motion of his lips, " Read it." It was read aloud, and Lincoln, his face ashy gray in hue and his eyes streaming with A Difficult Military Situation 173 tears, finally ejaculated : '' My God ! my God ! what will the country say ? What will the country say ? " He refused to be comforted, for his grief was great. The wildest rumors flew around the capital ; the most credible being that the Secretary of War had re- signed, and the President had gone to the front to put Halleck in command. Neither of these things was true, and as soon as the torn and bleeding Army of the Potomac could be reinforced and recruited it was once more put on a fighting basis. But, for a time, the losses sustained by the Union army, about ten thousand in all, and the disappointment endured by the country, seemed to plunge every loyal element into the deepest gloom, both in the camps and in the towns. The turning-point in the military history of the Re- bellion came during the month of July, 1863. In that month fell Vicksburg, the last stronghold on the Mis- sissippi River ; and in that month was fought the battle of Gettysburg, by which the last frantic effort to invade the North was frustrated and an irreparable damage inflicted upon the rebel cause. On the 4th day of July, lyincoln issued an announce- ment to the people of the United States, briefly but gladly stating the result of the battle of Gettysburg, and saying that the Army of the Potomac had been covered with the highest honor. He concluded with these words : " The President especially desires that on this day, * He whose will, not ours, should ever- more be done,' be everywhere remembered and rever- enced with profoundest gratitude." That evening, the President was visited by a vast throng of excited and joyful people, and a band played patriotic airs under the White House windows. There had not been of late so many victories for the Federal arms that 174 Abraham Lincoln occasions like these were common. The President ap- peared at the window, the one central under the portico of the mansion, where he so often afterwards stood to address similar gatherings, and made a short congratu- latory address to the multitude. He said : ' ' I do most sincerely thank God for the occasion of this call." Then, reminding the people of the day being the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and recalling the immortal words of that Declaration, which were the foundation of his political faith, he said : " How long ago is it? Eighty-odd years since, on the Fourth of July, for the first time in the history of the w^orld, a nation, by its representa- tives, assembled and declared as a self-evident truth, that all men are created equal. That was the birthday of the United States of America." He was deeply moved b}^ the occurrence on this day, above all others in the year, of events calculated to impress upon the minds of Americans the ideas declared in 1776, so dear to every patriotic citizen, so profoundly fixed in his own mind, as the underlying principles of human polit- ical freedom. And, after referring to historic events of national importance related to Independence Day, he added : *' And now at this last Fourth of July just passed we have a gigantic rebellion, at the bottom of which is an effort to overthrow the principle that all men are created equal. We have the surrender of a most important position and an SLvray on that very day." In August, Lincoln was invited with great urgency to attend a meeting called to assemble in Springfield, Illinois, to concert measures for the maintenance of the Union and to consider the condition of public affairs. In a letter written August 26th, he expressed his regret A Difficult Military Situation 175 that he could not attend the meeting, and in a few well-chosen sentences he outlined his policy. Alluding to the notion then beginning to be more prevalent than it had been, — that there might be a peaceful compro- mise with the rebels, — he asked how such a compro- mise could disband or expel from Northern soil the rebel army. He urged that the strength of the Rebel- lion was its army, and that a compromise, to be effec- tive, must be with those who controlled that army. And he promised that any proposition coming from any persons able to control the rebel forces should be enter- tained. The closing paragraphs of this letter, admira- ble examples of Lincoln's homely and forcible figures of speech, were as follows : '* The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the great Northwest for it ; nor yet wholly to them. Three hundred miles up they met New England, Empire, Keystone, and Jersey, hewing their way right and left. The sunny South, too, in more colors than one, also lent a helping hand. On the spot, their part of the history was jotted down in black and white. The job was a great national one, and let none be slighted who bore an honorable part in it. And while those who have cleared the great river may well be proud, even that is not all. It is hard to say that anything has been more bravely and well done than at Antietam, Murfreesboro, Gettysburg, and on many fields of less note. Nor must Uncle Sam's web- feet be forgotten. At all the watery margins they have been present, not only on the deep sea, the broad bay, and the rapid river, but also up the narrow, muddy bayou, and wherever the ground was a little damp, they have been and made their tracks. Thanks to all. For the great Republic — for the principle it lives 176 Abraham Lincoln by and keeps alive — for man's vast future — thanks to all. *' Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon and come to stay ; and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future time. It will then have been proved that among freemen there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case and pay the cost. And there will be some black men who can remember that with silent tongue and clenched teeth and steady eye and well-poised bayonet they have helped mankind on to this great consumma- tion, while I fear there will be some white ones unable to forget that with malignant heart and deceitful speech they have striven to hinder it." On the 19th of November, 1863, the battle-field of Gettysburg was solemnly dedicated as a burying-place for the repose of the remains of those who had yielded up their lives on that now historic ground. The ser- vices were solemn and impressive. The principal ora- tion was made by Edward Kverett, of Massachusetts. A few days before the ceremony, Mr. Kverett sent the President a copy of his address, printed on one sheet of a Boston newspaper. It was very long. Lincoln looked it over wdth great gravity and said : "It was very kind in Mr. Everett to send me this, in order that I might not go over the same ground that he has. There is no danger that I shall. My speech is all blocked out. It is very short." The speech was written out in Washington, but Lin- coln revised it somewhat after he reached Gettysburg. As he read it from the manuscript, he made a few verbal changes. These changes did not appear in the report printed at the time by the newspapers, but they A Difficult Military Situation 177 were embodied in the draft made for permanent pub- lication, afterwards, by Lincoln. As delivered and corrected by its illustrious author, the speech was as follows : ' ' Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in lib- erty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. ' ' Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. '' But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we can- not consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remem- ber, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." 12 178 Abraham Lincoln This wonderful address, so compact of wisdom and the simplest elements of eloquence, was received with becoming solemnity. But it must be admitted that the oration of the silver-tongued Everett, then one of the most admired of American orators, momentarily attracted greater attention. The very shortness of lyincoln's little speech caused it to be almost over- looked at the time. But in a few days, when the people of the country at large had fairly digested it, and its patriotic and human lesson had sunk into the minds of men, public opinion seized upon it and glori- fied it as one of the few masterpieces in oratory that the world has received. CHAPTER XX POlwlTlCAl. COMPI^ICATIONS AS the time approached, in 1864, for the Republicans to assemble in national convention, Lincoln made no sign of anxiety for a renomination by his party. In conversation with one of his friends he said : ** I am only the people's attorney in this great affair. I am trying to do the best I can for my client — the country. But if the people desire to change their at- torney, it is not for me to resist or complain. Never- theless, between you and me, I think the change would be impolitic, whoever might be substituted for the present counsel." To another he said, with his invet- erate habit of putting a large truth in the form of a pleasantry, *' I don't believe it is wise to swap horses while crossing a stream." In truth, after men had anxiously canvassed the names of all who were in the least worthy to be considered eligible to the presidency, succeeding Lincoln, they almost invariably returned to him as the only man to be thought of with seriousness. One of the important military events of that winter was the appointment of General Grant to the rank of Lieutenant-General. Hitherto, the highest rank in the army had been that of Major- General. The title of General-in-Chief, borne by Halleck, was temporary, a mere expedient, and not distinctly recognized by 179 i8o Abraham Lincoln usage. The rank of Lieutenant-Geiieral was created by act of Congress, with the tacit understanding that it was to be conferred upon Grant, whose almost un- broken series of victories in the West had by this time convinced the people that here was at last *' the com- ing man " for whom they had so long waited. Grant arrived in Washington, to accept his new commission, on the 8th of March. That evening there chanced to be a presidential levee at the White House. It was a public reception, open to all who chose to come. Thither went Grant, entering the reception- room unannounced. He was instantly recognized by those who had seen his portraits printed in the news- papers and circulated by means of the photographs then becoming common. He was greeted very warmly, almost affectionately, by Lincoln, and it was speedily noised about that the hero of Vicksburg was in the rooms, and the pressure to see him was so great that the modest General was induced to stand on a sofa, where he rose above the crowd and was regarded with admiring eyes. When he bade the President good- night, he said, " This is a warmer campaign than I have witnessed during the war." Next day, by appointment, he waited upon the Presi- dent, who, in the presence of members of the Cabinet and a few personal friends, presented him with his commission, saying : " General Grant, the nation's appreciation of what you have done, and its reliance upon you for what re- mains to be done in the existing great struggle, are now presented with this commission, constituting you Lieutenant- General in the Army of the United States. With this high honor devolves upon you also a corre- sponding responsibility. As the country here intrusts Political Complications i8i you, so, under God, it will sustain you. I need scarcely add that, with what I here speak for the nation, goes my own hearty personal concurrence. ' ' General Grant accepted the commission in a few modest words expressive of appreciation of the high honor conferred upon him, and acknowledging his sense of responsibility, his dependence upon the valor- ous armies, and, above all, as he said, ' ' the favor of that Providence which leads both nations and men." The General immediately visited the Army of the Potomac, of which General Meade still retained com- mand. Then he returned to Washington where, with- out his knowledge, a dinner for him had been arranged by Mrs. I^incoln, at the White House. At the close of an important interview with the President, during which the General outlined his plan of military opera- tions, as far as they could be arranged at that time, he announced his intention of leaving at once for the West. lyincoln told him of the expected dinner, but Grant quietly insisted that he must go. *' Besides," said the General, *' I have had enough of this show business, Mr. President." And the General left for the West without waiting for the dinner and the bril- liant invited company. This incident greatly pleased Lincoln, who, up to that time, had not met any military officer who was so willing to forego '' the show busi- ness." Lincoln was not unaware of political movements against him, but he took no steps to counteract them. When he was told that some of his opponents were con- sidering the name of General Grant as a possible candi- date for the presidency, he said : " If the people think that General Grant can end the Rebellion sooner by be- ing in this place, I shall be very glad to get out of it." 1 82 Abraham Lincoln And when remonstrated with, on account of his mak- ing appointments of those who were notoriously opposed to his renomination, he said : '* If this man is likely to make a good and faithful public officer, as I believe he is, have I any right to inquire further ? ' ' The result justified this calm and unruffled con- fidence. The Republican national convention was held in Baltimore, June 8, 1864. The only strife in the convention w^as for the honor of being the first to bring Lincoln's name before the delegates for their approval. Lincoln was nominated with scarcely a dissenting vote, and in the midst of a vociferous enthusiasm that rivalled that of the famous Chicago convention of i860, w^hen the name of the son of the backwoods and the frontier was first brought before the people of the United States as a candidate for the chief magistracy. In accepting the nomination, Lincoln said: ** I view this call to a second term as in no wise more flattering to myself than as an expression of the public judgment that I may better finish a difficult work than any one less severely schooled to the task." At that time an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, forever prohibiting slavery, was pending, and, referring to that, Lincoln said: '' Such an amendment as is now proposed becomes a fitting and necessary conclusion to the final success of the Union cause. Such alone can meet all cavils. The unconditional Union men, North and South, perceive its importance and embrace it. In the joint names of Liberty and Union, let us labor to give it legal form and practical effect." The losses of the war required that fresh levies of troops should be made. Many timid people, anxious for Lincoln's re-election, advised that a call for men and the enforcement of a draft should be put off until Political Complications 183 after the election had taken place. To such advice, lyincoln turned a deaf ear. He replied that more men must be had, if the war was to go on to a successful termination, and that the consequences to him, per- sonally, or to the party that had nominated him, were so insignificant, compared with the actual necessities of the country, that he could not for a moment consider them. The call was accordingly issued for five hun- dred thousand men. If the required number did not appear by the 5th of September, 1864, then a draft must be ordered. Lincoln's timorous friends were aghast at the prospect. The election resulted in an overwhelming majority for Lincoln. Every State that voted, that year, de- clared for Lincoln and Lincoln's policy, three alone excepted. These were Delaware, Kentucky, and New Jersey. The two first-named were formerly slave- holding States. The total number of votes cast in all the States was 4,015,902, of which Lincoln had a clear majority of 411,428, and 212 of the 233 electoral votes, McClellan having twenty-one electoral votes. Lincoln very naturally felt gratified by this mark of popular approval and confidence. He said this to the first party that came to congratulate him on his re-election — a company of Pennsylvanians in Washington. And he added: *' If I know my heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. I do not impugn the motives of any one opposed to me. It is no pleasure to me to triumph over any one ; but I give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the people's resolution to stand by free government and the rights of humanity." About the time that Lincoln was preparing his mes- sage to Congress, which assembled in December of that year, Sherman was on his way from Atlanta to the sea. 184 Abraham Lincoln The object of his march was unknown to the general public, but so implicit was the people's confidence in the great General that there was no disquiet as to his ultimate success. Lincoln delayed the conclusion of his annual message as long as possible, hoping to be able to report in it the successful termination of Sher- man's march to the sea. When the message was sent to Congress, he contented himself with a vague refer- ence to Sherman's movements, from which, he inti- mated, good results would come. While this message was in course of preparation, he had an interview with two ladies, wives of rebel ofiicers, prisoners of war in one of the federal strongholds of the North. Taking one of the stiff strips of cardboard on which his message was first sketched, he wrote out and gave to a personal friend a report of the interview, which he called *' the President's last, shortest, and best speech." This he submitted to the critical judg- ment of his friend, adding that, if he thought it worth while, it might be printed in the newspapers. It was as follows : " On Thursday of last week two ladies from Tennes- see came before the President, asking the release of their husbands, held as prisoners of war at Johnson's Island. They were put off until Friday, when they came again, and were again put off until Saturday. At each of the interviews one of the ladies urged that her husband was a religious man. On Saturday, when the President ordered the release of the prisoners, he said to this lady: ' You say your husband is a religious man ; tell him when j^ou meet him that I say I am not much of a judge of religion, but that, in my opinion, the religion that sets men to rebel and fight against their government because, as they think, that govern- Political Complications 185 inent does not sufficiently help some men to eat their bread in the sweat of other men's faces, is not the sort of religion upon which people can get to heaven.' " The second inauguration of Lincoln took place March 4, 1865. The day was dark and dismal in the opening hours, but the rain ceased when the procession from the White House to the Capitol began to move ; and as Lincoln rose to deliver his inaugural address the sun burst through the clouds, irradiating the scene with splendor and light. With a clear, resonant voice, standing bareheaded under the March sky, now softened and suffused with sunlight, Lincoln pronounced his masterly address, as follows : " FkIvLOw-Countrymkn : At this season, appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at first. Then, a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed very fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encourag- ing to all. With high hope for the future, no predic- tion in regard to it is ventured. ' ' On the occasion corresponding to this, four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an im- pending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avoid it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city, seeking 1 86 Abraham Lincoln to destroy it with war — seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide the effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish ; and the war came. One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this in- terest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest, was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union b}^ war, while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. *' Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. ** Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God, and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces. But let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayer of both could not be answ^ered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almight}^ has his own purposes. ' Woe unto the world because of offences, for it must needs be that offences come, but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh ! ' If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of these offences, which in the providence of God must needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that Political Complications 187 he gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to thOvSe by whom the offence came, shall we discern there any departure from those divine attri- butes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him ? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass awa}'. Yet if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled b}^ the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by an- other drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, that * the judgments of the lyord are true and righteous altogether. ' ' ' With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." It is impossible to describe the effect of the reading of this paper upon those who heard it and those who subsequently read it. Its lofty tone and grand majesty reminded one of the Hebraic prophecies ; and its dis- passionate and almost merciless dissection of the issues of the struggle for the preservation of the Union, and the dying contortions of the monster, slavery, were re- ceived with a feeling of awe. The impression made by the inaugural was profound. It was conclusive of the genius and the intellectual greatness of its author. CHAPTER XXI e;nd of a strange, evkntfui, history THE) spring of 1865 opened with every prospect of a speedy and complete ending of the Rebellion. Sherman's march to the sea had once more rent the dying Confederacy even more disastrously than the opening of the Mississippi had previously split it into two large fragments. Everywhere, on land and sea, the arms of the Union had been crowned with victory. Sherman's movements in the Carolinas had compelled the abandonment of Charleston. The capture of Fort Fisher by General Terry had virtually closed the last Atlantic port against possible supplies from abroad for the rebel forces. The scattered remnants of their armies were forced to concentrate and rally around lyce for the defence of the rebel capital. On the 27th of March, a conference of I^incoln, Grant, and Sherman was held on board of a steamer lying in the James River, near Grant's headquarters, at which the final and decisive measures of the cam- paign were discussed. Sheridan, who had been manoeuvring far to Grant's left, by dint of ten days' rapid marching and almost incessant fighting, had cut ofif the last avenue of lyce's escape southward, and had made his surrender merely a matter of a few days, at the furthest. Closely followed by Grant, Sheridan 188 End of a Strange, Eventful History 189 had now drawn a line completely around Usee's army, cutting it oS from food and supplies. Petersburg fell into the hands of the victorious Union troops, and on Monday morning, April 3d, the federal troops hoisted the flag of the Union over the building in Richmond that had been occupied by the rebel Congress. I^incoln was at City Point, near Grant's old head- quarters, waiting for the final and great result of all these military movements. Accompanied by Tad, he entered the fallen capital of the Confederacy as soon as possible after the news of its downfall reached him. Unattended, save by a boat's crew from a gunboat near at hand, and leading his little boy by the hand, Lin- coln entered the late capital of the rebel Confederacy, over which the national ensign now peacefully waved. He walked as one in a dream. Richmond, so long and so painfully the object of Union hopes and desires, was in the hands of the United States, its Congress and bureaus dispersed, and the members of its exploded government fugitives. Multitudes of colored people, apparently the only persons left in the city, flocked around the Liberator. They rent the air with their frenzied shouts. They danced, they sang, they prayed for blessings on the head of their deliverer; they wept, kneeling at his feet. In that supreme moment Lincoln was speechless. He wore no look of triumph over a fallen foe, evidences of whose poverty and great trial were thick about him. The tears streamed down his cheeks, furrowed with many cares, and, simply bowing his thanks, or raising his hat to the jubilant and almost hysterical crowds of freed persons, he passed on to the interior of the city. The statesman reared by God's wonderful providence and disciplined in the rough school of adversity, with IQO Abraham Lincoln the memories of his hard struggle in life still upon him, was in the last stronghold of the broken slave power. Meanwhile, Grant and Sheridan were drawing their lines more closely about the rebel army under Lee, who, like a hunted fox, vainly turned this way and that to escape the net in which he was enveloped. Grant tarried at Petersburg long enough to meet the President, who pressed on to see him for a moment. The two men met. Lincoln seized Grant by the hands, and poured forth his thanks and congratulations with a glowing radiance on his countenance. The North was delirious with joy. First came the news of the capture of Petersburg, announced in a despatch from President Lincoln to the War Depart- ment, and received in Washington about ten o'clock in the morning of the 3d of April. Three quarters of an hour later a despatch from General Weitzel told the glad tidings of the fall of Richmond. Although Lee had not been overtaken, these despatches were sufficient to set the people wild. The end of the Rebellion was at hand. Davis a fugitive, men recognized Lee as the real head of the Rebellion, but did not wait to hear of his surrender. The national capital was in a tumult of excitement and triumph. Thence the wave spread all over the country ; the news penetrated remote vil- lages and hamlets in an incredibly short space of time. Flags were spread to the breeze. Guns were fired, and bands, processions, and every outward form of jubila- tion were used to express the joy of the people. The prevailing feeling was not one of victory over a fallen foe, but of relief that the war was over. No more fighting ; no more dying on fields of battle ; no more enlistments and drafts ; no more anxious meas- ures for the maintenance of the Union. The war was End of a Strange, Eventful History 191 over. This was the burden of the song that flowed from the hearts of millions of men and women, relieved at last from an intolerable trial of patience. In Washington, the rejoicings took the form of a national celebration ; the public departments were closed as for a holiday. Flags flew from all the Gov- ernment buildings, and the War Department ordered a salute of eight hundred guns, five hundred for Rich- mond and three hundred for Petersburg. Bands paraded the streets, and the members of the Cabinet, in the absence of the President, were called out to address the excited crowds. Congress had adjourned, but the city was full of congressmen ; and multitudes of men, bent on seeing the end of the Rebellion as it was cele- brated in the capital of the nation, had gone thither. The cheering and the congratulations lasted far into the night. The city was given up to a mighty im- promptu festivity. On the following day, these demon- strations were renewed, and on the night of the 4th of April the city was illuminated. Public and private buildings were a blaze of light, and bonfires, fireworks, and every possible contrivance for the making of light and noise were resorted to by the happy people. L,ate in the night of April 8th, Palm Sunday, the news of the surrender of Lee reached Washington and was communicated to I^incoln, who had returned and was waiting for it. Once more the capital went wild with joy. The city took a general holiday. Once more the air resounded with the boom of cannon and the blare of martial music. Government clerks as- sembled in the great rotunda of the Treasury building and sang, '' Praise God from whom all blessings flow." On the evening of the nth of April, Washington was illuminated by the Government, and again every 192 Abraham Lincoln possible token of national rejoicing was put into requi- sition. It was a notable, even an historic occasion. At last the war was over. Outside of the White House was a vast crowd, cheering and shouting with a roar like that of the sea. A small battery from the navy yard occasionally rent the air with a salute, and the clamor of brass bands and the hissing of fireworks added to the confusion and racket in front of the man- sion. Inside of the house, at one of the front windows on the right of the staircase, was old Edward, the con- servative and dignified butler of the White House, struggling with Tad and trying to drag him back from the window, from which he was waving a confederate flag, captured in some fight and given to the boy. The crowd recognized Tad, who frantically waved the flag as he fought with Edward, while the people roared with delight. Edward conquered, and, followed by a parting cheer from the throng below. Tad rushed to his father with his complaints. But the President, just then approach- ing the centre window overlooking the portico, stood with a beaming face before the vast assembly beneath, and the mighty cheer that arose drowned all other sounds. The speech began with the words, ' ' We meet this evening, not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart." As Eincoln spoke, the multitude below was as silent as if the great courtyard were deserted. Then, as his speech was written on loose sheets, and the candles placed for him were too low, he took a light in his hand and went on with his reading. Soon, coming to the end of a page, he found some difficulty in handling the manuscript and holding the candlestick. A friend who stood behind the drapery of the window reached out and took the candle, and held it until the end of End of a Strange, Eventful History 193 the speech, and the President let the loose pages fall on the floor one by one, Tad picking them up as they fell and impatiently calling for more as they fluttered from his father's hand. Lincoln had made his last speech. Great events hurried after each other from that night to the morn- ing of the 14th of April, 1865. These marked the dis- appearance of the last vestiges of the fallen and broken Confederacy. At noon on the 14th was held the last meeting of the Cabinet, at which General Grant was present. While waiting for the latest arrival of the Ministers, lyincoln was observed to wear a grave look. He explained that he had had a strange dream — a re- markable presentiment. What it was he did not say, but abruptly proceeded to business. After the Cabinet meeting, he drove out for an hour with Mrs. I^incoln, talking cheerfully about their plans for the future and what would be possible and best for them and the boys when they should finally leave the White House, at the end of his second term. Mrs. lyincoln desired to visit Europe, and I^incoln was not wholly certain whether it would be best to fix his residence finally in his old home in Springfield, or in California, where he thought the boys might have a better start in life than in any of the older portions of the Republic. That night, as had been arranged, Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln, accompanied by General Grant and a few personal friends, were to visit the theatre. The fact had been announced in the newspapers, and an un- usually large audience collected. General Grant was detained by business, and the President, Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Clara Harris (a daughter of Senator Ira Harris, of New York), and Major Rathbone, of the army, occu- pied a box near the stage, in the upper tier of boxes. 194 Abraham Lincoln John Wilkes Booth, an actor, had conspired with cer- tain others to take the President's life on the first con- venient occasion. This man, so far as known, had no personal grievance of which to complain. He had been possessed by an insane notion that Lincoln was an in- human tyrant whose death was desirable. He and his companions had made their plans with great care and forethought. On this night he had a fleet horse ready in the rear of the theatre to bear him away when the deed should be done. At half-past ten o'clock in the evening, while those present were absorbed in what was happening on the stage, the assassin, who had passed unnoticed into the rear of the box occupied by the President and his friends, held a pistol within a few inches of the head of Lincoln, near the base of the brain, and fired. The ball entered the brain, and Lincoln fell forward insen- sible. The shot startled the great audience, but the position of the box did not allow many to see what had happened. Major Rathbone sprang to his feet and at- tempted to seize the assassin, who, drawing a long knife, stabbed Rathbone in the arm, and profiting by the Major's repulse, jumped from the box to the stage. Striding across the stage, he brandished the knife, cry- ing: '* Sic semper tyrannis ! " — the motto of the State of Virginia — *' Ever so to tyrants." Then adding, " The South is avenged ! " he vanished and was seen no more. In the midst of confusion and lamentation indescrib- able, the insensible form of Lincoln was carried from the theatre to a private residence across the street, and his family were sent for, and members of the Govern- ment made haste to assemble. Robert Lincoln, his mother, the Secretaries of the President, members of End of a Strange, Eventful History 195 the Cabinet, and a few of the personal friends of the family watched by the bed of the dying President through the night. No human skill could save that precious life, and all that science could do was merely to support the vigorous and well-trained natural powers as the}^ struggled involuntarily with approaching death. The President uttered no word, and gave no sign of being conscious of what had taken place, or of the presence of those about him. The tremulous whispers of medical attendants, the suppressed sobs of strong men, and the labored breathing of the dying man were the only sounds that broke the stillness of the chamber. At twenty-two minutes past seven o'clock, on the morning of April 15th, the mighty heart had ceased to beat. Lincoln was dead. As the sun rose red over Washington, on the morn- ing of April 15th, the body of lyincoln was carried to the White House, followed by a little procession of weeping but stern-faced men. Grief and a vague de- sire for revenge for this cruel and needless crime struggled for the mastery. This was the feeling all over the country, when the heavy tidings of the foul and most unnatural murder went forth over the length and breadth of the land. Flags that had been flying in triumph were lowered to half-mast in sorrow. It is no stretch of imagination to say that a great wave of lamentation, spontaneous and exceeding bitter, swept over the Republic. Bells were tolled and minute- guns were fired. For days all ordinary business, except that of the most imperative importance, was practically suspended, and the nation seemed abandoned to its mighty grief. On Wednesday, April 19th, the funeral of the dead President took place at the White House, in the midst ig6 Abraham Lincoln of an assemblage of the chief men of the nation. From the mansion in which the beloved I^incoln had suffered and toiled so much for the good of the people, his form was carried to the Capitol of the nation, in the rotunda of which it lay in state for one day, guarded by a com- pany of high officers of the army and navy and a de- tachment of soldiers. Thousands of men, women, and children passed through the building to take their last look at the face of Lincoln, white in his coffin. It was a memorable spectacle, and sighs and sobs attested the genuine grief of those who crowded in weeping throngs to see the Emancipator for the last time. Lincoln was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery, near Springfield, Illinois. The funeral train left Washing- ton on the 2ist of April, and traversed nearly the same route that had been passed over by the train that bore him, President-elect, from Springfield to Washington five years before. It was a funeral unique, wonderful. Nearly two thousand miles were traversed ; the people lined the entire distance, almost without an interval, standing with uncovered heads, mute with grief, as the sombre cortege swept by. Even night and falling showers did not keep them away from the line of the sad procession. Watch-fires blazed along the route in the darkness, and by day every device that could lend picturesqueness to the mournful scene and express the woe of the people was employed. In some of the larger cities the coffin of the illustrious dead was lifted from the funeral train and carried through, from one end to the other, attended by mighty processions of citizens, forming a funeral pageant of proportions so magnificent and imposing that the world has never since seen the like. Thus, honored in his funeral, guarded to his grave by famed and battle- End of a Strange, Eventful History 197 scarred generals of the army, Lincoln's body was laid to rest at last near his old home. Friends, neighbors, men who had known and loved homely and kindly Honest Abe Lincoln, assembled to pay their final tribute of affection and honor at his burying-place. And with the remains of his darling little son Willie by his side, he was left whose life had begun in the poverty and obscurity of an American wilderness, and ended in the full blaze of the white light that beats upon a place conspicuous in the world's wide fame. It seemed as if the whole civilized world were arrested in its daily concerns of life by this tragic calamity. From every quarter of the globe — from kings and queens, emperors, senates, and legislative assemblies, from private individuals, high and low, and from con- vocations of the plain people of many lands — came mes- sages of sympathy, condolence, respect, and sincere sorrow. It was a tribute, unprecedented and spon- taneous, to the ended life and completed services of Abraham Lincoln. It would be hard to better the words of Lowell, fore- shadowing as they did in 1865 the conclusions of time and calmer judgment : " People of more sensitive organizations may be shocked, but we are glad that in this our true war of independence, which is to free us forever from the Old World, we have had at the head of our affairs a man whom America made, as God made Adam, out of the very earth, unancestried, unprivileged, unknown, to show us how much truth, how much magnanimity, and how much statecraft await the call of opportunity in simple manhood when it believes in the justice of God and the worth of man. 198 Abraham Lincoln ( c On the day of his death, this simple Western at- torney, who, according to one party was a vulgar joker, and whom the doctrinaires among his own supporters accused of wanting every element of statesmanship, was the most absolute ruler in Christendom, and this solely by the hold his good-humored sagacity had laid on the hearts and understandings of his countrymen. Nor was this all, for it appeared that he had drawn the great majority, not only of his fellow-citizens, but of mankind also, to his side. So strong and so persuasive is honest manliness without a single quality of romance or unreal sentiment to help it." As lyowell's was among the earliest and truest esti- mates of Lincoln's worth, so, thirty-five years later in the Senate of the United States, the following from the lips of a Southern partisan ^ affords a striking instance of the triumph of Lincoln's statesmanship : ** The condition in regard to slavery and the cease- less agitation had embittered the South against the North and the North against the South. Secession and belief in States' rights, for which the South has always contended, precipitated the conflict. The North fought to preserve the Union and to free the slaves, and the South fought for self-government and the inherited belief in the justice of holding slaves as property. The Declaration of Independence was the slogan of both sections. The North contended that the Declaration embraced the negroes, while the South, remembering that Jefferson had been a slaveholder, contended that it did not. I was only a boy of thirteen when the great struggle began ; but who can forget, even though ^ Senator Tillman, January 29, 19CX), End of a Strange, Eventful History 199 a child, the angry outbursts, the battle-cries that had led up to the bloody contest ? * ' Amid the storm of passion, who was the man, the embodiment of all that was best and noblest in Northern civilization, and even in American civilization, who stood as the great apostle of liberty ? Whose words of fervid eloquence marshalled the Northern hosts ? Whose high moral purpose, whose grandeur of char- acter and greatness of soul sustained those hosts in ad- versity and defeat ? Who stood like a Colossus towering above the smaller, meaner men who surrounded him, and who must ever stand above them, commanding the admiration and love of all true men everywhere ? Who ? Abraham lyincoln ; and I from South Carolina tell you so and feel honored in doing it. '* Whatever motives may be attributed to others, whatever of selfishness or ambition that entered into the calculations of others, I here declare it is my belief that he never had a thought in connection with the whole subject nor uttered a word that did not have its inspiration in the purest patriotism and the noblest aspiration for humanity. He did not consider the Declaration of Independence an academic question. It was to him a religion." The author of this brief biography has imperfectly carried out his purpose if he has failed to show how the character of lyincoln was developed and shaped by his early training ; how he was raised up and fitted, in the obscure seclusion of humble life, by the providence of God, for a special and peculiar service ; how he be- came the type, flower, and representative of all that is worthily American ; how in him the commonest of hu- man traits were blended with an all-embracing charity 200 Abraham Lincoln and the highest human wisdom ; and how, with single- hearted devotion to the right, he lived unselfishl}^, void of selfish personal ambition, and, dying tragicalh', left a name to be remembered with love and honor as one of the best and greatest of mankind. INDEX. Adams, Charles Francis, 75. Adams, John Quincy, 72. Albany, 139. Anderson, Robert, 39, 149-50. Antietam, 162, 167, 169, 175, Armstrong, Jack, 34-5, 88-9. Armstrong, William D., 88-9. Army of the Potomac, 165, 167, 169, 172, 181. Arthur, Chester A., 80. Ashland, 69. Ashmun, 131. Atchison, David, 98-9. Bailey vs. Cromwell, 86. Baker, K. D., 49, 56, 58, 66, 79, 80, 87, 145. Baltimore, 126, 140. Barn-burners, 75. Beauregard, General, 150. Beecher, Henry Ward, 121. Bell, John, 126. Berry, 42, 44. Black Hawk War, 38, 83, 107, 149. "Blue Lodges," 102. Boone, Daniel, 5. Booth, John Wilkes, 194. Breckinridge, John C., 23, 127, 133- Brown, John, 99-100. Bryant, William Cullen, 76, 121. Buchanan, James, 136, 144, 148. Buena Vista, 67, 74. Bull Run, 151. Burns's Poems ^ 20. Burnside, A. E., 167, 169. Butterfield, Daniel, 172. Calhoun, John C, 72. California, 78. Cameron, Simon, 128. Camp, half-faced, 9, 13. Cartwright, Peter, 69. Case, 84-6. Cass, Lewis, 39, 40, 72-3, 76-7. Cerro Gordo, 79. Chambersburg , 168. Chancellorsville , 172. Charleston, S. C, 126, 149, 188. Chase, Salmon P., 76, 128. Chicago, no. Choate, Joseph, 121. Cincinnati, 121, 137. Clary's Grove, 34-5, 38, 42, 88. Clay, Henry, 38, 68, 74. Confederacy, 144, 148, 153, 188-9. Cooper's novels, 20. Cooper Union, 121, 125, 139. Crockett, Davy, 84. Davis, Jefferson, 72, 150, 190. Decatur, 111., 30, 81. District of Columbia, 78, 159. Dix, John A., 72. Dorsey, Hazel, 21. Douglas, Stephen Arnold, 50, 56, 72-3, 92-7, 103-5, 109-18, 127, 132-3, 145, 147. Dred Scott, 108-9, i44' Electoral vote, 77, 133, 183. 201 202 Index Elkin, Parson, 5, 14. Emancipation Proclamation, 160, 162-4. Euclid, 22. 115. Evarts, William M., 129. Everett, Edward, 126, 176. Forqner, George, 48. Fredericksburg, 169. Free Soilers, 75-6, 77. Fremont, Jobn C, 129, 156. Garfield, James A., 80. Gentry, Mr., 26-7, 30. Gettysburg, 152, 173, 175-8. Goose Nest Prairie, 81. Grant, Ulysses S., 76, 179-81, 188, 190, 193. Greelej', Horace, 160. Greene, Bolin, 45. Halleck, H. W., 172, 179. Hamlin, Hannibal, 130. Hanks, Dennis, 13, 15, 19, 24, 81. Hanks, John, 32, 33. Hanks, Nancy, 3-15, 106. Hanks, Thomas, 30-1, 119-20. Hardin, J. J., 50, 67. Harper's Ferry, 167. Harrisburg, 141-3. Harrison, William Henry, 57, 64, 73, 75. Hazel, Caleb, 4. Herndon, W. H., 55, 77, 87, 90, 104. Hinkle, 87. Hooker, Joseph, 170-2. Hunter, David, 157. Independence Hall, 141. Indianapolis, 136. Johnson, Andrew, 72. Johnson, John, 19, 32, 81-3. Johnson, Mrs. Sally Bush, 18- 21, 82. Judd, 128. Kansas, 91-6, 98-103, 109, 120. Kirkpatrick, 38. Lane, James H., 99. Lecompton, 103, 109, 125. Lee, Robert E., 161, 167, 188, 191. Lexington, 68. Liberia, 100. Lincoln, Abraham (grand- father of the President), 1-3, 106. Lincoln, Abraham, born, 4 ; motherless, 14 ; his first book, 17 ; his stepmother, 18 ; his love of reading, 21 ; as a wrestler, 21 ; saves life of a neighbor, 22 ; at- tends court, 23 ; examples in arithmetic, 24-5; builds a flat boat, 26 ; first earn- ings, 26 ; first voyage down the Mississippi, 27; ad- venture with midnight ma- rauders, 27-8 ; first view of slavery, 28 ; strikes out for himself, 31 ; disaster at New Salem, 32 ; his inven- tion, 33 ; second voyage to the land of slavery, 33 ; settles in New Salem, 33 ; encounter with Jack Arm- strong, 34 ; a peacemaker, 35 ; studies grammar, 36 ; his first law books, 37 ; can- didate for the Legislature, 38 ; in the Black Hawk War, 38 ; defeated for Legislature, 41 ; buys a half-interest iu country store, 42; appointed postmaster, 43; elected to the Legislature, 46 ; political encounters, 48-9 ; the Lin- coln-Stone protest, 51 ; re- moves to Springfield, 52 ; partnership, 55; love, **duel," marriage, 60-5; elected to Congress, 69 ; "Spot" Resolutions, 71; Ind ex 203 proposes anti-slavery legis- lation, 78 ; as an applicant for office, 79 ; to his step- brother, 81 ; typical cases, 84-9 ; as presidential elec- tor, 91 ; his reply to Douglas, 94-6 ; as candidate for U.S. Senate, 97 ; letter to Speed, loo-ioi ; views on colon- ization, loi ; debate with Douglas, 104 ; visits Kansas, 120; speech at Cooper Union, 121 ; nominated for the pres- idency, 125-30 ; elected, 133 ; his religious views, 135 ; journey to Washing- ton, 135-43 ; inauguration, 144-7 > first call for troops, 150 ; message to Congress, July, 1 86 1, 151 ; overrules Fremont and Hunter, 156-8; letter to Horace Greeley, 160 ; Emancipation Proc- lamation, 162 ; letters to Mc- Clellan, 168 ; letter to Hook- er, 170 ; speech at serenade, 173 ; letter to Springfield, 174 ; address at Gettys- burg, 176 ; address to Grant, 180 ; second nomination, 182 ; call for troops, 183 ; second inaugural, 185 ; con- ferences with Grant and Sherman, 188 ; visits Rich- mond, 189 ; his last speech, 192 ; assassinated, 194 ; fu- neral, 195 ; character, 197. I/incoln, Edward Baker, 80. Lincoln, Isaac, 3. Lincoln, Josiah, and Morde- cai, J -3. Lincoln, Mary, and Nancy, 3. Lincoln, Robert, 80, 194. Lincoln, Sarah, 4. Lincoln, Thomas, 2, 3, 5-8, 14-19, 30, 81, 90, 107, 130. Lincoln, William Wallace, 80. Loco-Focos, 75. Logan, John, 50. Logan, S. T., 55-6. Longfellow, Henry W., 138. "Long Nine," 52. " Lost Townships," 62. Louisville Courier^ 36. Lowell, James Russell, 122, 197-8. McClellan, George B., 165-9. Mason and Slidell, 152-5. Meade, George G., 181. Mexican War, 67, 71-4, 79. " Milk-sick," 13. Missouri, 82, 91, 98-102, 108, 156. Missouri Compromise, 91-2, 94, 108. Montgomery, 149. Morgan, E. D., 139. Nancy, negro girl, 86. Naturalized foreigners, 119. Nebraska, 91-6, 103. New Mexico, 78. New Orleans, 28, 33, 87, New Salem, 33, 44, 107. Nolin Creek, 3. North East, 138. OfFutt, Denton, 32-3, 37. Ordinance of 1787, 91. Oregon, 49, 79-80. Ossawattomie, 99. Patent, Lincoln's, 33. Peninsular Campaign, 166-7. Petersburg, 189, 191. Pickens, Fort, 150. Pittsburg, 138. Plymouth Church, 121. Polk, James K., 68, 71. Pomeroy, Silas C, 99. Pope, John, 167. Porter, Fitz-John, 167. Prentice, George D., 36. Rathbone, Major, 193. Richmond, 126, 189, 191. Riney, Zachariah, 4. 204 Index Robinson, Charles, 99-100. Root, Mr., 78. Rutledge, Ann, 60. Sangamon, 32, 50, 52, 61, 66, 107. San Jacinto, 153. Scott, Winfield, 141, 145. Seward, William H., 26, 76, 128, 145, 153. Sheridan, Philip, 188, 190. Sherman, W. T., 183, 188. Shields, James, 50, 61-3, 97. Slavery, 68, 70, 76, 78, 90, 92-6. Snow boys, 84-6. South Mountain, 162. Sparrow, Mrs. Betsy, 13. Speed, Joshua F., 52, 61. Spencer County, Ind., 6, 107. *' Spot " Resolutions, 71. Springfield, 111., 32, 50, 52, 53, 60, 64, no, 174, 196. " Squatter Sovereignty," 92. Stanton, Edwin M., 153. Stephens, Alexander H., 72. Stone and Lincoln, 51. Stuart, John T., 55. Stuart, J. E. B., 168. Sumner, Charles, 76, 129, 145. Sumter, Fort, 149, 150. Taney, R. B., Chief-Justice, 144. Taylor, Richard, 49. Taylor, Zachary, 39, 74, 76, 77, 149. Texas, 69, 72, 74, 78. Thames, 73, 76. Tillman, Senator, 198-9. Todd, Mary, 60-4. Toombs, Robert, 72. Topeka, 100. Trent Affair, 153. Trenton, 17, 140, 169. Tribune, 160. Trumbull, Lyman, 97, 115-6. Tyler, John, 75- Van Buren, Martin, 57, 65-6, 75, 77. Vandalia, 50. Vicksburg, 173, 180. Wade, Benjamin, 145, Washington, D. C, 143, 165, 191. Watauga Creek, 3. Webster, Daniel, 72, 76. Weems'sZz/"^ of Washington, 16, 17, 140. Welles, Gideon, 153. "Wide-awakes," 132. Wilkes, Captain, 155. Wilson, Henry, 76, 145. Wood, Fernando, 139. Historic Towns of New England Edited by Lyman P. Powell. With introduction by George P. Morris. With i6i illustrations. Large 8°, gilt top $3 50 Contents : Portland, by Samuel T. Pickard ; Rutland, by Edwin D. Mead ; Salem, by George D. Latimer ; Boston, by Thomas Wentworth Higginson ; Cambridge, by Samuel A. Eliot ; Concord, by Frank A. Sanborn ; Plymouth, by Ellen Watson ; Cape Cod Towns, by Katharine Lee Bates ; Deerfield, by George Sheldon ; Newport, by Susan Coolidge ; Providence, by William B. Weeden ; Hartford, by Mary K. Talcott ; New Haven, by Frederick Hull Cogswell. "These monographs have permanent literary and historical value. They are from the pens of authors who are saturated with their themes, and do not write to order, but cofz amore. The beautiful letterpress adds greatly to the attractiveness of the book." — T/ie Watc/unan. " The authors of the Boston papers have succeeded in presenting a wonderfully interesting account in which none of the more important events have been omitted. . . . the quaint Cape Cod towns that have clung tenaciously to their old-fashioned ways are described with a characteristic vividness by Miss Bares. . . . The other papers are presented in a delightfully attractive manner that will serve to make more deeply cherished the memory of the places described." — New York Times. Historic Towns of the Middle States Edited by Lyman P. Powell. With introduction by Dr. Albert Shaw. With 135 illustrations. Large 8°, gilt top $3 50 Contents : Albany, by W. W. Battershall ; Saratoga, by Ellen H. Walworth ; Schenectady, by Judson S. Landon ; New- burgh, by Adelaide Skeel ; Tarrytown, by H. W. Mabie ; Brook- lyn, by Harrington Putnam ; New York, by J. B. Gilder ; Buffalo, by Rowland B. Mahany ; Pittsburgh, by S. H. Church ; Phila- delphia, by Talcott Williams ; Princeton, by W. M. Sloane ; Wilmington, by E, N. Vallandigham. " Mr, Powell's contributors have prepared a most interesting collection of papers on important landmarks of the Middle States. The writers enter into the history of their respective towns with much elaborateness." — N. V. Tribune. Q. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, New York and London Historic Towns of the Southern States Edited by Lyman P. Powell. With introduction by W. P. Trent. With about 175 illustrations. Large 8°, gilt top $3 50 Contents : Baltimore, By St. George L. Sioussat ; Annapolis and Frederick, by Sara Andrew Shafer ; Washington, by F. A. Vanderlip ; Richmond, by William Wirt Henry ; Williamsburg, by Lyon G. Tyler ; Wilmington, N. C, by J. B. Cheshire ; Charlestown, by Yates Snowden ; Savannah, by Pleasant A. Stoval ; St. Augustine, by G. R. Fairbanks ; Mobile, by Peter J. Hamilton ; Montgomery, by George Petrie ; New Orleans, by Grace King ; Vicksburg, by H. F. Simrall ; Knoxville, by Joshua W. Caldwell ; Nashville, by Gates P. Thruston ; Louis- ville, by Lucien V. Rule ; Little Rock, by George B. Rose. " This very charming volume is so exquisitely gotten up, the scheme is so perfect, the seventeen writers have done their work with such historical accuracy and with such literary skill, the illustrations are so abundant and so artistic, that all must rejoice that Mr, Powell ever attempted to make the historical pilgrim- ages." — Journal of Education. Historic Towns of the Western States Edited by Lyman P. Powell. With introduction by R. G. Thwaites. Two volumes, fully illustrated, large 8° % Contents : Detroit, by Silas Farmer ; Chicago, by Hon. Lyman T. Gage ; St. Louis, by F. M. Crunden ; Monterey, by Harold Bake ; San Francisco, by Edwin Markham ; Portland, by Rev. Thomas L, Cole ; Madison, by Prof. R. G. Thwaites ; Kansas City, by Charles S. Gleed ; Cleveland, by President Charles F. Thwing ; Cincinnati, by Hon. M. E. Ailes ; Marietta, by Muriel C. Dyar ; Des Moines, by Dr. F. I. Herriot ; Indianapolis, by Hon. Perry S. Heath ; Denver, by J. C. Dana ; Omaha, by Dr. Victor Rosewater ; Los Angeles, by Florence E. Winslow ; Salt Lake City, by Prof. James E. Talmage ; Minneapolis and St. Paul, by Hon. Charles B. Elhott ; Santa F6, by Dr. F. W. Hodge ; Vincennes, by W. H. Smith. Q. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, New York and London I