^.0 O O f > O c^ n- vS'. co:«: »• I- jncjcjOtji I' U m :o3>S3S>:o?&5 i' r ^ 1/ ' -: '^^ n^o '^^/^^'^VX/L/ lABRAHAM LINCOLN: ^XB i^ifit null} Hnblit BtxbutB. MRS. P. A. HANAFORD, AUTHOR OF "OUR MARTYRED PRESIDENT," "THE TOUNG CAPTAIN," KTO. " That life Is long -which answers life's great end." — Young. " God buries his workmen, but carries on the work." — Charles Weslbt. "The righteous hath hope in his death." — Peov. xiv. 32. BOSTON: B. B. RUSSELL AND COMPANY. S. S. BOYDEN, Chicago, III. 1 8G6. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by B. B. RUSSELL ASSD COMPAKY, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachnsetts. PKINTED BY , BAND & ATEBT. TO ALL LOYAL MEN AND WOMEN, NORTH AND SOUTH, EAST AND WEST, TO TSB zr jv I o jv ^ !R jf r a jv ^ jv^irr, AND ESPECIALLY TO THE LONG -OPPRESSED KACE FOR WHOM President JLincoln WROTE THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, THIS RECOnD OF IIIS STAINLESS LIFE AND MARTYR'S DEATH IS NOW INSCRIBED. PREFACE. It has been thought that a biography of our martyred President, brief yet comprehensive, and published in a style which would bring it within the limits of all who would buy any volume, ought to be published at once. Of this remarkable man it can be said, as it was said of our Lord Jesus Christ, "The common people heard him gladly;" and therefore a memoir expressly designed for the mass of readers in our country cannot fail to be warmly welcomed. There wiill doubtless be many biographies of our late President, written by different pens, and of varying size, style, and merit. But the field is open to all ; and no one has a right to monopolize it, and thus prohibit others from labor in the same direction. Every new book finds new readers, and meets some unsupplied demand. If a volume, like this now offered, be indeed — as it is supposed to be — a desideratum., its own readers, for whom it is designed, will cluster about it, and the hopes of its author and publisher be realized. The special aim of this volume is twofold : First, To present a truthful picture of the character of the great and good man who has fallen among us ; delineating, as far as possible in narrating the events of his life, the growth and development of those grand and heroic virtues which stamp him with the unmistakable seal of Heaven's approval, and make his name " One of the few, the immortal names That were not born to die. " And, secondly, To show that " the course of human events " was such, during his earthly existence, and his relation to ttem so peculiar in the providence of God, as to indicate that he was specially commissioned for his day and work, — a 1* 6 6 PREFACE. man of the times, and a man for the times ; that he lived long enough to be able to say, like his Lord, " It is finished," and then passed on to hear from divine lips the unrivalled words of welcome, "Well done, good and faithful servant! enter thou into the joy of thy Lord ! " Should this volume deepen the convictions of its readers in the grand truths of God's sovereignty on earth as well as in heaven, and of his love to all the family of man, shown especially in his care for the outcast and oppressed ; and should it make them love freedom and righteousness more and more, as they contemplate the character and life of the Martyr-President, — the labor spent in its preparation will not have been in vain, and to God will be ascribed the glory. P. A. H. READrao, Mass. CONTENTS. Paob. CHAPTER I. Early Days in Obscurity 9 CHAPTER II. Culture 26 CHAPTER III. Preparation for his Work 83 CHAPTER IV. Called to the Presidential Chair 67 CHAPTER V. Troublous Times 81 CHAPTER VI. The Course pursued 92 CHAPTER VII. Peculiar Trials 104 CHAPTER VIII. Bemarkable Documents 116 CHAPTER IX. AKBOnOTES 153 7 8 COXTEXTS. CHAPTER X. Chri5tia>- Woeds a>-d Deeds 167 CHAPTER XL Choses Agaix l&l CHAPTER XII. Last Days axd a Xatiox's Geief 195 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. -00>>»<&0- CHAPTER I. EARLY DAYS IN OBSCURITY. "Honor and shame from no condition rise: Act well your part, — there all the honor lies." Pope. " But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; a«d God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty ; "And base things of the world, and thing's which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring- to nought things that are : " That no flesh should glory in his presence." — St. Paul (1 Cor. i. 27). The sixteenth President of the United States was born in obscurity. No Gabriel heralded his birth; no shepherds saw the star of his nativity, and heard the chanting" of celestial visitants to earth ; nor did sages and philosophers come to his cradle-side with costly offerings and significant homage. Yet he had a grand mission on earth to perform, and was to be, in some sense, the savior of many, and in the obscurity of his birth, at least, resembled the Master whose footsteps he afterward loved to follow. It is the design of Infinite Wisdom that the tiny acorn should precede the towering oak, the little rivulet commence the mighty river ; and that Wis- dom was no less manifest in the humble birth and parentage of one whom the good of all nations, in all time, should afterward delight to honor. In that part of Hardin County, Ky., now known as La Ruo, on the 12th of February, 1809, Abraham 10 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Lincoln entered upon existence. His father, Thomas Lincohi, and the grandfather whose patriarchal name he bore, were natives of Rockingham County, Va., a part of the '' Old Dominion " to which their ancestors had removed from Berks County, Penn. Abraham, the grandfather, migrated to Kentucky with his family in the year 1780, where he obtained possession of a small tract of land in the then wilderness, and there erected a rude cabin, and commenced a life of toil and danger. Like the Pilgrim colonists of our own New England, he was accustomed to carry his gun with his axe, or other implement of labor, when he went forth to his toil ; and, when he laid his head upon his nightly pil- low, it was with his trusty firelock conveniently at hand, that there might be safety for him and his should the wild war-whoop of the savage Indian break upon his slumbers. These merciless '' lords of the forest" manifest- ed intense hostility to the " pale-faces," and with ruthless barbarity murdered men, women, and children, when the opportunity was afforded them. For four years, our President's grandfather was unharmed ; but at the end of that period, while he was using his axe at a place some four miles from his home, he was suddenly attacked by the Indians, and, unable to reach his gun in season, was overpowered, killed, and scalped after the hideous Indian fashion. Search was made for him when his pro- longed absence awakened alarm, and the next morning his remains were discovered. This loss of their beloved father resulted finally in the scattering of the childi'eu. The father of our martyred President left his early home when only about twelve years old, but afterwards returned to Kentucky, and in 1806 married Miss Nancy Sparrow, who was a native of Virginia. Both of our late President's parents were members of the Baptist Church, EARLY DAYS m OBSCURITY. 11 and well known as a pious, unassuming, but uneducated couple. The father could neither read nor write, save to scribble . his name in rude hieroglyphic letters which could hardly bo understood. The mother could not write, but she could read; and this accomplishment made her seem a remarkable woman for that time and place. Moreover, it gave her the power to peruse the blessed volume, and to read its holy words to her husband for his guidance and consolation, and its interesting stories to her beloved son Abraham. Thomas Lincoln appreciated this privilege which his wife possessed, and it deepened his respect for her; for, though himself so unlearned, he appreciated all the more, perhaps, the advantages of education : and all who pos- sessed a more than ordinary share of learning challenged and received from him the most unbounded respect. And, could he have foreseen the career of his noble and excel- lent son, he would have been still more desirous than he was that Abraham should have the opportunity to study, and still more proud of the facility with which he mas- tered his lessons. It was at the age of seven that ''Abe," as he was familiarly termed in the home-circle, first began to attend school in a small academy with a teacher who loved not his great work, and was only anxious that his pupils should learn to read and write. Having put into their hands the power to do these two great things, he left them to use that power or not, as they pleased. But, under this apathetic and incompetent teacher, Abraham was not destined long to stay. His father was a lover of liberty. He could not breathe freely in a slave State. He saw the peculiar disadvan- tages of life for poor whites in a land where labor was degraded by slavery ; and he resolved that his children 12 ABRAHAM LTX^OLIf. should be relieved from his own unsatisfactory lot of hopeless endeavor, where the verv genius loci was against him. Therefore, early in October, 1816, when Abraham was nearly eight years old, and had been in school but a brief period, the family removed to Indiana, and settled in Spencer County, in the southern part of the State, near the Ohio River, about midway between Louisville and EvansviUe. The farm and homestead which Thomas Lincoln sold could not have been very valuable ; for the equivalent received was ten barrels of whiskey, valued at two hun- dred and eighty dollars, and twenty dollars in money. Mr. Lincoln was a temperate man, and consented to this arrangement, not from any love of the " fire-water," but because it was a customary transaction, and, in those days, regarded as perfectly proper. The following description of the exodus from Kentucky presents such a graphic idea of the early days of Presi- dent Lincoln, that it is quoted verbatim. The author is anonymous ; but it is believed to be correct in every particular : — *' The homestead was within a mile or two of the Roll- ing Fork River ; and, as soon as the sale was eflected, Mr. Lincoln, with such slight assistance as little Abe could :5ive him, hewed out a flat-boat, and, launching it, filled t with his household articles and tools and the barrels jf whiskey, and bidding adieu to his son, who stood upon the bank, pushed off, and was soon floating down the stream, on his way to Indiana to select a new home. His journey down the Rolling Fork and into the Ohio River was successfully accomplished; but, soon afterwards, his boat was unfortunately upset, and its cargo thrown into the water. Some men standing on the bank wit- EARLY DAYH IN OBSCURITY. 13 nessed the accident, and saved the boat ana its owner ; but all the contents of the craft were lost, except a few carpenter's tools, axes, three barrels of whiskey, and some other articles. Ho again started, and proceeded to a well-known ferry on the river, from whence he was guided into the interior by a resident of the section of country in which he had landed, and to whom he had given his boat in payment for his services. After several days of difficult travelling, much of the time employed in cutting a road through the forest wide enough for a team, eighteen miles were accomplished, and Spencer County, Ind., was reached. The site for his new home having been determined upon, Mr. Lincoln left his goods under the care of a person who lived a few miles distant, and, returning to Kentucky on foot, made preparations to remove his family. In a few days, the party bade fare- well to their old home and slaver}'^ ; Mrs. Lincoln and her daughter riding one horse, Abe another, and the father a third. After a seven-days' journey through an uninhabited country, their resting-place at night being a blanket spread upon the ground, they arrived at the spot selected for their future residence ; and no unnecessary delays were permitted to interfere with the immediate and successful clearing of a site for a cabin. An axe was placed in Abe's hands ; and, with the additional assistance of a neighbor, in two or three days M\\ Lincoln had a neat house of about eighteen feet square, the logs composing which being fastened together in the usual manner by notches, and the cracks between them filled with mud. It had only one room ; but some slabs laid across logs overhead gave additional accommodations, which were obtained by climbing a rough ladder in one corner. A bed, table, and four stools, were then made by the two settlers, father and son ; and the building was 2 14 ABIiAHAM LINCOLN. ready for occupancy. The loft was Abe's bed-room ; and there, night after night, for many years, he who now occu- pies the most exalted position in the gift of the American people, and who dwells in the White House at Wash- ington, surrounded by all the comforts that wealth and power can give, slumbered, with one coarse blanket for his mattress, and another for his covering. LINCOLN'S EAKLY II03IE IX KENTUCKY. " Although busy during the ensuing winter with his axe, he did not neglect his reading and spelling, and also practised frequently with a rifle ; the first evidence of his skill as a marksman being manifested, much to the delight of his parents, in the killing of a wild turkey, which had approached too near the cabin. The knowledge of the use of the rifle was indispensable in the border settlements at that time, as the greater portion of the food required for the settlers was procured by it; and the family which had not among its male members one or more who could discharge it with accuracy was very apt to sufler from a scarcity of comestibles." EARLY DAYS IN OBSCURITY. 15 When Abe went to Mr. Hazel's school in Kentucky- he took with him a copy of Dillworth's Spelling-book, one of the three books which composed the whole of the family library. The Bible and Catechism were the other two. Diligently conned, and even well-studied, his scanty early library did much to form the character of the child and the man. The spelling-book was the key to unlock for him all the treasures of knowledge he afterward made his own. From ^Esop's lesson-fraught fables, soon after presented to him, he gained the aptness of illustration which has made '' the President's last anecdote " a byword ; and from the best of books and Catechism he gathered those ripe sheaves of wisdom which fitted him for his place in life and in history. His mother — noble and blessed woman — was his in- spiration. She was determined that her son should at least learn to read his Bible ; and, before God called her to dwell with the angels, she had the satisfaction of see- ing him read the volume which he never afterward neglected. Abraham's mother might have said, as did Mary the mother of Jesus, " From henceforth all gen- erations shall call me blessed ; " and while this nation shall revere the name and memory of the mother of George Washington, side by side with hers will it write the name of the mother of Abraham Lincoln. The parallel between Washington and Lincoln does not linger here. It pauses not till the bells toll a requiem, and a nation once more weeps over its beloved dead. True, there were apparent points of difference, but only such as, under Providence, were needed to fit each for their separate duties and destinies as leaders of the American people in their two great wars, — one for national inde- pendence, the other for national unity. Washington was of a family renowned in English 16 ABRAHAM LINCOLN: heraldry. Lincola could trace an honorable descant from Quaker stock in Pennslyvania. " Washington was the natural representative of na- tional independence. He might also have represented national unity, had this principle been challenged to bloody battle during his life ; for nothing was nearer his heart than the consolidation of our Union, which, in his letter to Congress transmitting the Constitution, he de- clared to be the greatest interest of every true Ameri- can. . . . But another person was needed, of different birth and simpler life, to represent the ideas which were now assailed." ^ There were not a few contrasts — in origin, in early life, in condition and opportunities — between Washing- ton and Lincoln, but the parallels are more numerous; and Washington himself had a mighty influ'ence on the boy Lincoln through the record of his life, which Abra- ham read while yet a dweller in the rude log-cabin on the outskirts of civilization. One biographer f of Lincoln says, " The hatchet story of Washington, which has done more to make boys truthful than a hundred solemn exhortations, made a strong impression upon Abraham, and was one of those unseen, gentle influences which helped to form his character for integrity and honesty. Its effect may be traced in the following story, which bids fair to become as never-failing an accompaniment to a Life of Lincoln as the hatchet case to that of Wash- ington : — "Mr. Crawford had lent him a copy of Ramsay's 'Life of Washington.' During a severe storm, Abraham im- proved his leisure by reading this book. One night he laid it down carefully, as he thought, and the next morn- * " Eulogy on Abraham Lincoln," by Hon. Charles Sumner. t II?nry J. Raymond. EARLY DAYS IN OBSCURITY. 17 ing he found it soaked through. The wind had changed, the storm had beaten in through a crack in the logs, and the appearance of the book was ruined. How could'he face the owner under such circumstances ? He had no money to offer as a return ; but he took the book, went directly to Mr. Crawford, showed him the irreparable injury, and frankly and honestly offered to work for him until he should be satisfied. Mr. Crawford accepted the offer, and gave Abraham the book for his own in return for three days' steady labor in ' pulling fodder.' His manliness and straight-forwardness won the esteem of the Crawfords, and indeed of all the neighborhood." Rev. William M. Thayer states, probably on the au- thority of those who knew Abraham Lincoln in early life, that, "during the long winter evenings of that first winter in Indiana, he read by the light of the fire only ; for they could not afford the luxury of any other light in their cabin. This was true, very generally, of the pioneer families : they had no more than was absolutely necessary to supply their wants. They could exist without lamp-oil or candles, and so most of them did without either. They could afford the largest fire possi- ble, since wood was so plenty that they studied to get rid of it. Hence the light of the fire was almost equal to a good chandelier. Large logs and branches of wood were piled together in the fireplace, and its mammoth blaze lighted up every nook and corner of the dwehing. Hence lamps were scarcely needed." "^ Not long after the removal of the family to Indiana, the mother of Lincoln died. This was a sad loss to the whole of the little circle, especially to the children. Abraham had one sister who lived to womanhood, was ♦ " The Pioneer Boy," p. 102. 2* 18 ABRAHAM LIKCOLN. married, and died shortly after, leaving no children. His onlj brother died in infancy. ]\lr3, Lincoln, as has been intimated, was one of the most devoted of mothers, spar- ing no pains to insure the Avelfare of her beloved chil- dren. Abraham was always a dutiful son, and her coun- sel and example were not lost on him, but, as good seed sown on good ground, her instructions sprang forth into a life of good order and usefulness. The bereaved boy was almost inconsolable at her loss. No minister was near to pray with the survivors as they laid down the dear head of the wife and mother for the last, long sleep amid the shadows of the forest. Sympathizing neigh- bors gathered around ; but the want of a minister to conduct the usual solemn rites of Christian burial was deeply felt. Some months afterward, Abraham had an opportunity of learning to write, which with character- istic energy and industry he faithfully improved. " Af- ter a few weeks of practice under the eye of his in- structor, and also out of doors with a piece of chalk or charred stick, he was able to write his name, and in less than twelve months could and did write a letter." One of the first letters he wrote was to an old friend of his mother, a travelling preacher, whom he desired to come and preach her funeral sermon. Parson Elkins did not receive the letter for some three months ; but then he hastened to Indiana, and the neighbors again assem- bled — a year after her death — to pay a last tribute of respect to one universally beloved. Abraham's services as a letter-writer were thus known, and he soon found himself busied in writing letters for his neighbors. President Lincoln never forgot his mother. It was very long before the loneliness and desolation of that sad bereavement passed away. Her lessons of divinest wisdom he kept stored in his heart, and all her hallowed EARLY DAYS IN OBSCURITY. 19 influence was eternally sealed upon his soul by her de- parture from earth. Who shall say that it was not deep- ened and intensified by that very change which gave her hQnceforth more intimate communion Avith spirits, and possibly with the spirit of her son ? Her grave, to which hallowed spot the bereaved son was wont fre- quently to repair, and muse upon his great loss and her eternal gain, is still embowered amid the majestic forest- trees of that region. No tombstone yet denotes the sacred spot ; and the place where the remains lie buried is an unfrequented locality, or nearly so. President Lin- coln wrote a letter, shortly before his death, expressing his intention to visit the grave during the approach- ing summer, and cause a suitable monument to be erect- ed; and in that letter, which was to an old friend, he expressed regret that care and business had so long hin- dered him from performing this duty. He will never perform it. Instead of going to her grave, he has gone to her ; and blissful beyond human computation must have been, ere this, the meeting of such a mother with such a son. Yet that humble grave should not be neglected. A nation owes it to the memory of a President martyred in its holy cause that his mother's tomb should be honorabl}'' distinguished. During the next year after Mrs. Lincoln's death, Abra- ham's father married again, and secured in Mrs. Sally Johnston of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, a worthy step- mother for his children. She had three children, and seemed to have been one who could say with Mrs. Howe, — " Then spoke the angel of mothers To me in gentle tone, ' Be kind to the children of others, And thus deserve thine own.' " Between her and the son to whom she became a true 20 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. friend as well as a step-mother sprang up a devoted at- tachment ; and she ever acted as if she said to him in tender tones of ardent sympathy, using the words of Mrs. Welby,— " Child of the lost, the buried, and the sainted, I call thee mine, Till fairer still, with tears and sin untainted, Her home be thine." Step-mothers are not all heartless, and those who, like the writer of these pages, have known the devoted care and tender love of a good step-mother^ do not like to hear them as a class condemned. This second mother of our late President still survives to remember his nobleness of soul, and to mourn his martyrdom. She resides at Goose Nest, Coles County, eight miles south of Charles- town, Illinois. A few years after the death of his mother, a Mr. Craw- ford, one of the settlers, opened a school in his own cabin ; and thither Abraham regularly repaired to add a knowledge of arithmetic to his reading and writing. His appearance was in keeping with his humble home. He was arrayed in buckskin clothes, with a raccoon-skin cap, and carried an old arithmetic, which had been in- dustriously sought for his benefit. " His progress was rapid, and his perseverance and faithfulness won the in- terest and esteem of his teacher." His love of books continued, and he read all that he could obtain far and near. With the immortal dreamer of Bedford jail, he traced the pathway of the Christian pilgrim from the City of Destruction to his Celestial Home beyond the river ; and no doubt he felt that he, too, would gladly follow such a path, sure as he was that his own dear mother would bo one of the shining ones to greet him on the heavenly shore. He pored over such books as EARLY DAYS IN OBSCURITY. 21 the " Lives of Clay and Washington," till the fires of a noble emulation and true patriotism glowed in his heart ; and he thus daily grew more and more to be of the very spirit of which heroic leaders and wise counsellors are made. God was fitting him, even in his childhood and his youth, for the very work which was before him. Bishop Simpson expressed this idea in his funeral sermon at Springfield, Illinois, on the 4th of May, 1865. He said, " Mr, Lincoln was no ordinary man. I believe the conviction has been growing on the nation's mind, as it certainly has been on my own, especially in the last years of his administration, that by the hand of God he was especially singled out to guide our Government in these troublesome times ; and it seems to me that the hand of God may be traced in many of the events connected with his history. First, then, I recognize this in the physical education which he received, and which pre- pared him for enduring herculean labors. In the toils of his boyhood, and the labors of his manhood, God was giving him an iron frame. Next to this was his identifi- cation with the heart of this great peoj)le, understanding their feelings because he was one of them, and con- nected with them in their movements and life. His education was simple. A few months spent in the schoolhouse gave him the elements of education. He read few books, but mastered all he read. ' Pilgrim's Progress,' '^sop's Fables,' and the ' Life of Washington,' were his favorites. In these we recognize the works which gave the bias to his character, and which partly moulded his style. His early life, with its varied strug- gles, joined him indissolubly to the working masses ; and no elevation in society diminished his respect for the sons of toil. He knew w^hat it was to fell the tall trees of the forest, and to stem the current of the broad Mississippi. 22 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. His home was in the growing West, the heart of the Re- public ; and, invigorated by the wind which swept over its prairies, he learned lessons of self-reliance which sus- tained him in seasons of adversity." Bishop Simpson's allusion to Abraham's efforts on the broad bosom of the " Father of "Waters " was founded, doubtless, on the fact, that, when about nineteen years of age, Abraham accompanied the son of the owner of a flatboat, who intrusted a valuable cargo to their care, to the city of New Orleans. He was hired at the rate of FLATBOAT. ten dollars a month, and the twain composed the only crew. With only one companion, it was rather a danger- ous journey. " At night they tied up alongside of the bank, and rested upon the hard deck, with a blanket for a covering ; and during the hours of light, whether their lonely trip was cheered by a bright sun, or made dis- agreeable in the extreme by violent storms, their craft floated down the stream, its helmsmen never for a mo- ment losing their spirits, or regretting their acceptance EARLY DAYS IN OBSCURITY. 23 of the positions they occupied. Nothing occurred to mar the success of the trip, nor the excitement naturally incident to a flatboat expedition of some eighteen hun- dred miles, save a midnight attack by a party of negroes, who, after a severe conflict, were compelled to flee," In the spring of 1830, the Lincoln family again sought a new home. Their journey, in a region where roads were rough and railroads unknown, was made in fifteen days. They carried their goods in large wagons drawn by oxen, and Abraham himself drove one of the teams. They halted on the north side of the Sangamon River, at a place about ten miles west of Decatur, Illinois. While crossing the bottom lands of the Kaskaskia River on their way, the men of the party were obliged to wade through water several feet deep. So the journey was not ac- LINCOLN'S FIRST HOUSE IN ILLINOIS. complished without some hinderances. On their arrival a log-cabin was to be built, ground broken for corn, and a rail-fence to be made around the farm, in all of which Abraham labored faithfully.* Those rails have been im- * la this work the Lincolns were assisted by a relative of Abraham's mother, named John Hanks. Wliile this volume was in preparation, BIr. Hanks was in Boston exhibiting this identical log-cabin, together with other relics 24 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. mortalized by orators and poets, and will henceforth be mentioned by historians. Sumner says, " These rails have become classical in our history, and the name of ' rail-splitter ' has been more than the degree of a college. Not that the splitter of rails is especially meritorious, but because the people are proud to trace aspiring talent to humble beginnings, and because they found in this tribute a new opportunity of vindicating the dignity of free labor, and of repelling the insolent pretensions of slavery." The newspaper report of the first public men- tion of Abraham Lincoln as a rail-splitter is as follows: " During the sitting of the Republican State Convention at Decatur, a banner attached to two of these rails, and bearing an appropriate inscription, was brought into the assemblage, and formally presented to that body, amid a scene of unparalleled enthusiasm. After that, they were in demand in every State in the Union in which free labor is honored, where they were borne in processions of the people, and hailed by hundreds of thousands of freemen as a symbol of triumph, and as a glorious vindi- cation of freedom and of the rights and dignity of free labor. These, however, were far from being the first or only rails made by Lincoln. He was a practised hand at the business. Mr. Lincoln has now a cane made from one of the rails split by his own hands in boyhood." of Lincoln's eai-ly daj's of poverty and obscurity. He is an honest-looking gentleman, with a silvery beard, about seven years older than Mr. Lincoln, but much more venerable in appearance. He can neither read nor write. He says that his cousin Dennis F. Hanks taught "little Abe" his letters. Tiie log- cabin above mentioned has no windows; but a half sheet of paper oiled, placed in a sort of wooden shutter, admitted a little light when the shutter was closed. It is said to be truly a Union cabin, iiaving in it sticks of oak, hickory, hack- berry, red elm, walnut, basswood, honey, locust, and sassafras, but, it is be- lieved, not a stick of pine. The dimensions are eighteen feet by sixteen; and it is nine logs, or about eight feet, high. It has a peaked roof, the highest part of whicii is about five feet from the level of its eaves. It was begun March 80, 1830; and f'nur days were spent in building it. EARLY DAYS IN^ OBSCURITY. 25 Thus in tho foregoing pages have been depicted the events and influences of Abraham Lincoln's life during his early days. In the eloquent language of his eulogist in the " Athens of America/' on the day set apart for commemorative services all over the land, this chapter may be fittingly closed : — "His youth was now spent, and at the age of twenty-' one he left his father's house to begin the world for him- self. A small bundle, a laughing face, and an honest heart, — these were his visible possessions, together with that unconscious character and intelligence which his country afterward learned to prize. In the long history of ' worth depressed,' there is no instance of such a con- trast between the depression and the triumph, unless, perhaps, his successor as President may share with him this distinction. No academy, no university, no alma mater of science or learning, had nourished him. No government had taken him by the hand, and given to him the gift of opportunity. No inheritance of land or money had fallen to him. No friend stood by his side. He was alone in poverty ; and yet not all alone. There was God above, who watches all, and does not desert the lowly. Simple in life and manners, and knowing nothing of form or ceremony, with a village schoolmaster for six months as his only teacher, he had grown up in companionship with the people, with nature, with trees, with the fruitful corn, and with the stars. While yet a child, his father had borne him away from a soil wasted by slavery ; and he was now the citizen of a free State, where free labor had been placed under the safeguard of irreversi- ble compact and fundamental law. And thus closed the youth of the future President, happy at least that he could go forth under the day-star of Liberty." CHAPTER II. CULTURE. " The more our spirits are enlarged on earth, The deeper draught livill they receive of heaven." " The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree ; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon." — Psalm xcii. 12. The celebrated German poet Goethe once made this instructive declaration, in a conversation with his friend Eckerman : " Each hon-mot has cost me a purse of gold : half a million of my own money, the fortune I inherited, my salary, and the large income I have derived from my writings for fifty years back, have been expended to in- struct me in what I know." Men are apt to overlook the stupendous price at which they have every thing; and the culture which has only been secured through a civilization which has cost suffering and toil and thought, and even heroism and martyrdom, is still deemed to have been obtained without much expenditure, when, in fact, it was priceless ; so much so, that to ask its amount is almost like asking, with the Lord Jesus, " What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" We think of that log-cabin in the woods, of the inele- gant surroundings of the future President, and say, "Such a man was not cultured, and it cost nothing to train him for duty and destiny." But it did cost much : not, it may be, of money, though more of that than a superficial observer might suppose ; but labor and influence and 26 CULTURE. 27 prayers, and the silent but po'U'erful ministrations of Na- ture and Nature's God with his angelic messengers, who are declared to be '' ministering spirits, sent forth to min- ister for them who shall be heirs of salvation." Abraham Lincoln was not a man of science, or a literary man, as men often use those terms. He would not be classed with Humboldt or Newton, nor with Scott or Irving ; but he was nevertheless a man of culture. La- bor made him such ; his own earnest efforts to gain learning, his parents' efforts that he should obtain at least the rudiments of an education, and enter, at all events, the porch of the temple of wisdom, and the labor of in- structors who must have been encouraged by the earnest attention and patient industry of the boy for whom God had in store a high place and a noble work. Influence — the influence of mighty rulers in the realm of mind, mighty though few — was brought to bear upon his nascent spirit for its growth and culture. Plutarch and JEsop, Washington, and Franklin, and Clay, lived for Abraham Lincoln, as well as for others v\diom they have influenced in the paths of honor and virtue. And the tinker of Bedford, whose immortal allegory wreathes its author's head with the unfading laurels, — he, too, had no mean part in the culture of a man who has proved him- self often a Great-Heart, but never a Worldly-wise-Man. And, above all, the historians and prophets of ancient times, the Hebrew bards whose harps Avill never cease to echo through the ages, the apostolic teachers of the dawning Christian era, and especially He who. " spake as never man spake," ■ — all had their mighty and far-reach- ing influence on the mind of the boy, who, like young Timothy, studied the Holy Scriptures, and early accepted them as a " lamp to his feet and a light to his path." Prayers, too, had something to do with his culture. 28 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. There may be those who scoff at prayer, who scout the idea once expressed in rhythmical harmony, that — " Prayer moves the hand which moves the world; " but as there are forces in Nature whose origin and in- fluence we cannot fully explain, while yet we are com- pelled to acknowledge their existence ; so, though we may not comprehend how prayer accomplishes its di- vinely appointed ends, yet it is none the less true that prayer is a power in the universe. Other things being equal, he that has most power in prayer is surest of suc- cess ; for in prayer he takes hold of the arm of God, joins to his weakness the infinite strength, and finds himself possessed of the true Archimedean lever. Abraham Lincoln's mother was a praying woman. '^ She who would rather her son would ' learn to read his Bible than own a farm' was a true, model mother; and when in his early childhood a green mound in the wilderness showed that she had finished her course, and gained her reward, well might that boy Lincoln visit that holy place, and weep for very bitterness of soul."* The prayers of such a Avoman must have been answered in the dew of grace that early fell upon the soul of her motherless boy. There were other prayers, too, which undoubtedly had their unseen influence in the culture ■ of Abraham Lincoln. Far away in the rice-swamps and cotton-plantations of the South, a long-oppressed race were crying for deliverance. Worse task-masters than those of Egypt were crushing out the very manliood and womanhood of the slavery-cursed people ; and the de- spairing cry of agony went up to heaven, in the tears and gr'jans and prayers of long, long years, for a de- * Rev. A. Cakhvcll's Address. CULTURE. 29 liverer. God heard those prayers ; and slowly to onr eyes and to their waiting hearts, but more surely for the fulfilment of his own grand purposes of love and mercy, he prepared the man who should grasp the keys of des- tiny with a firm hand but a tender heart, and unlock the doors of the prison-house. And so prayer cultured Abra- ham Lincoln. But how describe the culture which that great soul received from Nature with her myriad forms of beauty, and from God and the angels ? The receptive mind, consciously or unconsciously (and more often the latter) is powerfully impressed with the wonders of the out- ward world ; and Abraham Lincoln was one of those who could not witness that awakening of the spring-time, which Longfellow calls " the great annual miracle of Na- ture,*' without receiving lasting and salutary impres- sions. S&) too, the '' soft summer-time," autumn with its golden glory, and the winter with its crystals of geometric beauty covering the earth with a snowy car- pet, — all taught him divinest lessons. There was no Vatican, nor British Museum, nor Astor Library, with their myriad volumes, to aid in his intellectual culture ; but he early learned to find — " Tongues in the trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in every thing; " and his young soul grew more and more. Angels from the world of light hovered around his pathway, as long ago around his Lord, and as they en- camp around all God's dear children. The dream of Doddridge, which showed him an angel-guardian in many a scene of danger through which he had passed, was but a truthful expression of the fact that the " cloud of wit- nesses" ever around the immortal but earth-veiled spirit 3» 30 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. of the child of God are fulfilling grand purposes of blessing to the soul they guard. Above all, Abraham Lincoln was taught of God. The " still small voice " was not unheard by him from early infancy. His own prayers mingled with those already mentioned, and the Great Spirit heard and answered. The divine utterance in his own soul was not unheeded ; and day by day listening to it, and heeding its require- ments, he not only " grew in wisdom and in stature," but, like the Holy Child, he also '^ grew in favor with God and man." "The man who is complete in that for which the world wants him," as Abraham Lincoln was, " seems not only to be suited for his work, but to have had all circumstances suited to him. He is born in the right age of history. The proper spot of earth waits for him and receives him. The household into which he enters appears best for him amidst all the households of humanity. So per- haps it might not be judged in many a case if we saw the man in the first stages of his nurture ; but so we find it when we can see his life in its issues. A similar adaptation may be noticed in any remarkable man's tastes, trials, and pursuits ; in all, indeed, that subserves his training and his experience."* Abraham Lincoln became just such a remarkable man, after a youth spent in receiving just the culture of heart and mind needed for his place in the world. The early days of Lincoln, spent in the obscurity of his forest home, have already been traced. His removal to Illinois brought him to new scenes, and under new influences. He was now to be cultured by society in a greater degree than ever before. * " Illustrations of Geoius," by Rev. Henry Giles. CULTURE. 31 Having passed his twenty-first birthday, he began in 1831 to labor for himself. He aided to build a flatboat, and then went in it to New Orleans, and so satisfactorily cared for boat and cargo, that his employer took him into his store at New Salem, twenty miles below Spring- field. Here for a twelvemonth he became more familiar with arithmetic ; and here he so dealt with his customers, and so conducted himself in all the relations of life, that he began to be known as " Honest Abe," — an honorable title which will never be taken away ; for he never for- feited it. Athletic and active, young Lincoln could not fail to engage in the usual out-door sports of young men in that place, and was usually the acknowledged judge of the games, whose integrity or good judgment was unques- tionable. It cannot be said that the culture of Abraham Lincoln was that which would make him shine in polite society. His uncouth, awkward form and homely visage, his un- polished dress and address, wore to be expected from his pioneer life ; but his soul was robed in beauty which the angels could discern, and which all high souls, to whom he was known on earth, sooner or later perceived. His cul- ture was such as many a man of humble birth and lowly home may share, and it brought him into sympathy with the people over whom ho was to be placed, and clothed him with true humility when he stood on the pinnacle of power and fame. It was a culture which produced sim- plicity, that child-like charm which won all appreciative hearts to the Martyr-President. '' Simplicity adapts it- self artlessly to others, because it is full of charity, and therefore desires to make others happy. Its words are the overflow of genial thought and kindly affection ; and all hearts that hold aught in common with it open and 32 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. expand before its influences, as plants start at the touch of spring. . . . There is no affectation, no straining for effect, in simphcity. All is natural and genuine with it. Its Avit is never forced, its wisdom is never stilted; nor is either ever dragged in for mere display." "' This rare simplicity was a special result of the culture which President Lincoln received; and, while the hand of God is plainly to be observed in all his history, nowhere is it more prominently seen than in the circumstances and influences which helped to make Lincoln what he was, — a man whose culture was not scientific or literary mainly, but just such as would make a man of the people fit to govern the people in righteousness and love. * "Elements of Character," by Mrs. Mary G. Ware. CHAPTER III. PEEPARATION FOR HIS WORK. "Walk Boldly and wisely in that light thou hast: There is a hand above will help thee on." Bailey'3 Festus. "Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the liery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." — St. Paul (Eph. vi. 14-17). Veil the truth as we may, if indisposed to see it, yet, nevertheless, there will come shining through the mighty fact that God had a work for Abraham Lincoln to per- form, and that he prepared him for it, not by givang him wealthy friends, inherited honors, splendid position, but by permitting him to be inured to toil and hardship and bereavement, and thus to " Know how sublime a thing it 13 To suffer and be strong." Day by day, amid the peculiar circumstances of his early days and opening manhood, was he putting ou the armor which should be needed in the hours of stern con- flict that were approaching. Well has one * said, " Lap of luxury and home of ease send not forth the arms that move the world. He who is driven aloft by the force of circumstances becomes the noblest soul and the mighti- * Rev. Augustine Caldwell. 33 34 ABHAHAJH LINCOLN. est power. Call we a bumble bome, a scanty board, and tbreadbare coat, but a bligbt or curse ? Ab ! ' God, in cursing, Gives us better gifts tlian men in blessing; ' and tbose bumble ones wbo bave struggled upward witb notbing but a stern will and a consciousness of rigbt to upbold tbem bave proved the world's ricbest friends." The Lord Jesus teacbes, in bis pertinent question con- cerning the falling sparrow and tbe numbered bairs, tbat God exercises a constant watcbfulness over all men, and continually guides them in the affairs of life. The his- tory of our late President's career, and of the times in which he lived, everywhere shows tbe guiding hand of a divine providence. " Many are willing to acknowledge a general provi- dence, who do not believe in a universal or particular one. But there cannot be a general providence without a particular one. That would be utterly impossible; for all generals are made up of particulars. Could a man culti- vate a farm in general, without ploughing any particular field, or casting into tbe earth any particular seeds? Could a watchmaker make watches in general, without making any particular wheels and springs, and giving to every wheel its special form and size and place, finishing the minutest parts in tbe nicest manner? Could a merchant sell things in general, and notbing in particular, having no particular store, or particular goods, or special price ? Or if we look at the material creation, where we can see tbe divine method of Avorking, does the Lord make a tree in general, without any particular branches, twigs, leaves, bark, fibre, and cells ? No : on tbe contrary, tbe whole tree is built up by the action of the pores and cells in their least parts. This is the universal method of the divine PliEPAnjriON FOR HIS WORK. 35 operations. ... It is impossible* that there can be a general providence without a special one. If there is a general providence, it is the result of a universal or par- ticular one."* The great work of Abraham Lincoln was to guide the American Ship of State during the storm of rebellion, and, as an indissoluble duty, to emancipate the oppressed millions in our land, whose unrighteous bondage made our glorious banner too long a "flaunting lie," and our " Independent days " ostentatious cheats. We have seen how his childhood and early manhood were the precursors of a useful maturity ; and still may we trace the guiding hand of God in his further steps, preparing him for the Presidency of the United States, and to be Commander-in-Chief of the Union Army. Before the death of his mother, the future director of the greatest army the world ever saw was taught the use of fire-arms ; and it is worthy of note that the mother of Lincoln — brave pioneer woman that she was ! — her- self loaded the rifle with which he then shot his first game, — a large wild turkey. He became very expert in the use of the rifle ; and, as has been already inti- mated, was able thus to add to the family larder, and also to procure furs, which were then in great demand. One of his biographers says, " There is no doubt that the culture he received by the use of the rifle had its influence in developing his physical energies, as he was ever distinguished for his strength and powers of en- durance ; and that it indirectly served to inspire his heart with courage, promptness, and decision, for which his whole life has been eminent." f The same biographer relates a circumstance which happened during the time when Abraham attended Mr. ♦ Rev. Chauncy Giles. t '' Pioneer Boy," p. 11. 36 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Crawford's school, that'illustrates the growing capacity of the lad, and foreshadows his future labors as a public speaker. The scholars were talking, one Monday morn- ing before the hour for school to commence, about the sermon to which they had listened the day before. Abra- ham declared himself able to repeat a large part of the sermon ; and, when the boys doubted it, he proved his retentive memory, close attention, and speech-making powers, by mounting a stump and rehearsing the ser- mon. The young orator was overheard by his teacher, and won his admiration and applause as well as that of his fellow-pupils. Little did any of them think how he would address large audiences in the future just unfold- ing before him, swaying their minds and influencing their hearts by a forcible and earnest presentation of high truths intimately connected with the safety and happiness of the nation. He, of whom one of his early associates says, " We seldom went hunting together ; Abe was not a noted hunter, as the time spent by other boys in such amuse- ments was improved by him in the perusal of some good book," did not fail to grow in knowledge ever after he left his father's roof, and sought to carve his own way to fame and fortune, wholly ignorant of the lofty niche assigned him in the temple of renown. Mr. Lincoln, for so he should be called since he was twenty-one and had an indisputable right to wear the tofja virilis, sought employment among those who need- ed a strong arm, and exemplified in his own efforts the sensible words which he uttered thirty years later in reference to liired labor: — '' My understanding of the hired laborer is this : A young man finds himself of an age to be dismissed from parental control ; he has for his capital nothing save rUEPAllATION FOR UIS WORK. 37 two strong hands that God has given him, a heart will- ing to labor, and a freedom to choose the mode of his work, and the manner of his employer ; he has no sciil nor shop, and he avails himself of the opportunity of hiring himself to some man Avho has capital to pay him a fair day's wages for a fair day's Avork. He is bene- fited by availing himself of that privilege ; he works in- dustriously, he behaves soberly, and the result of a year or two's labor is a surplus of capital. Now he buys land on his own hook ; he settles, marries, begets sons and daughters ; and, in course of time, he, too, has enough capital to hire some new beginner." This homely and characteristic speech was truthful, like the man who uttered it when on the eve of nomina- tion to tlie highest office in the gift of the nation ; and at that same time he expressed his opinion in regard to free labor, in the same straightforward, though rather in- elegant manner. His words may as well be quoted here. They were these : " Our Government was not estab- lished that one man might do with himself as he pleases, and with another man too. ... I say, that, whereas God Almighty has given every man one mouth to be fed, and one pair of hands adapted to furnish food for that mouth, if any thing can be proved to be the will of Heaven, it is proved by this fact, that that mouth is to be fed by those hands, without being interfered with by any other man, who has also his mouth to feed and his hands to labor with. I hold, if the Almighty had ever made a set of men that should do all the eating and none of the work, he would have made them with mouths only, and no hands ; and if he had ever made another class that ho had intended should do all the work, and none of the eating, he would have made them without mouths, and with all hands." 4 38 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. As a hired laborer, young Lincoln spent the siiiLmer and fall with a Mr. Armstrong, who observed his studious habits, and proposed to his wife to keep the youthful student through the winter. He insisted on laboring for Mr. .Armstrong enough to pay his board, and spent the rest of his time in study. Early the next spring, as before stated, he assisted in building a boat at Sangamon, and then made a trip to New Orleans, which was so successful, that his employer, gratified with the industry and tact young Lincoln ex- hibited, engaged him to take charge of his mill and store in the village of New Salem. Thus Mr. Lincoln, having already been prepared to sympathize with the mechanic, came to have a near relation also to the merchant, that he could understand in after-life the trials and preplexi- ties of that class among the men he was called to govern. The young man who spent his leisure moments, amid the distractions of mercantile life, in studying grammar and arithmetic, may well be supposed to feel an interest in public events transpiring in his native land. Earl}"- in the ^^ear 1832 the Black-Hawk War commenced, and the Governor of Illinois called for volunteer troops. Young Lincoln, with patriotic ardor, was the first to place his name on the roll at the recruiting-office in New Salem. A company was soon raised there ; and such was the confidence of his fellow-townsmen and comrades- in-arms^ that they unanimously chose him to be their captain, — an office which he reluctantly accepted, having a modest doubt of his own ability to serve in that capacity. " The New-Salem company went into camp at Beards- town, from whence, in a few days, they marched to the expected scene of conflict. When the tliirty days of their euHstment had expired, however, they iiad not seen the enemy. They wore disbanded at Ottawa, and most of PREPARATION FOR HIS WORK. 39 tlie volunteers returned ; but, a new lev}^ being called for, Abraham re-enlisted as a private. Another thirty- days expired, and the war was not over. His regiment was disbanded, and again, the third time, he volunteered. He was determined to serve his country as long as the war lasted. Before the third term of his enlistment had expired, the battle of Bad Axe was fought, which put an end to the war. "He returned home. 'Having lost his horse, near where the town of Janesville, Wisconsin, now stands, he went down Rock River to Dixon in a canoe ; thence he crossed the country on foot to Peoria, where he again took canoe to a point on the Illinois River, Avithin forty- miles of home. The latter distance he accomplished on foot.' " One who served under him in the New-Salem company writes, that he was a universal favorite in the army ; that he was an eflScient, faithful officer, watchful of his men, and prompt in the discharge of duty ; and that his courage and patriotism shrank from no dangers or hard- ships." * Thus by personal participation in military duties the future Commander-in-Chief was preparing for his coming responsibilities ; and this preparation was such as to make him truly sympathize with privates as well as officers, and to be just to both. He returned to New Salem and to business when no longer needed as a soldier. The author of the " Lincoln Memorial "' says, in speaking of Mr. Lincoln as a clerk and manager, '' He soon made liis mark : an attempt of a gang of the bullies of the place to give him a beating resulted in the defeat of their champion by the tall sinewy stranger, who at once became a favorite with * " The Pioneer Boy," p. 252. 40 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. those who gauged men by their physical endurance and courage; while his aflable manners, his unfailing cheerful- ness, his ready wit, and his stories, made him a favorite with all. A store was soon his own ; but he was too honest and too kiDd-hearted to drive sharp bargains, and soon found himself in difSculties which it required years of subsequent struggle to clear away, but which he allowed to stand no longer than till he had ability to discharge them. Honest Abraham Lincoln knew no bankrupt's discharge, but a receipt in full on payment in full." Another noticeable fact in Mr. Lincoln's history is thus mentioned by the same writer : " The office of post- master of New Salem, a petty office indeed, was his first public position, and one which gave him intense pleasure from the opportunitj^ of reading it afforded him ; and it is not a little remarkable that he began life, we may say, by serving the General Government in a civil, and soon after in a military capacity." The writer of the '' Lincoln Memorial" thinks that the fact of Lincoln's captaincy was significant, and almost symbolical. '' This early choice," he says, " of one who was at most a clerk and hand in a country store, shows how clearly his fellow-citizens had recognized him as one born to be a ruler of men. At the next election for members of the legislature, he was taken up as the candidate of his district, and so completely united the votes of all parties in his })rcciuct, that he received every vote but seven out of two hundred and eighty-four ; and though he was dofTjated in the district at large, it was the only occasion in which he failed in such an election." While acting as postmaster, Mr. Lincoln continued his studies, and improved his increased opportunities for extensive reading. He is said to have written out a synopsis of every book ho read, and thus to have fixed the contents in his memory. PREPARATION FOR HIS WORK. |1 About this time, John Calhoun, afterwards President of the Lecompton Constitutional Convention, and promi- nent in the troubles in Kansas, came to New Salem. He soon formed the acquaintance of the best conversation- ist in the place, and advised him to learn surveying, — the work in which he himself was engaged. Mr. Lin- coln did so, and soon obtained employment as a sur- veyor, thus unconsciously imitating him whose place as the head of a great nation he was afterwards to occupy. Little thought Washington or Lincoln, as they drove their stakes or stretched their chains over their neigh- bors' lands " for a consideration," that they should one day, so to speak, drive the stakes of their tent in the Capitol of the nation, and stretch the chain of their in- fluence over the whole broad country. But God " put- teth down one, and setteth up another;" and he upon whose brow God has ordained a crown should rest will surely wear it in the fulness of time, though he may have been born in a hovel or a manger. DiflSculties beset the path of the future President. He had not the never-empty purse of Fortunatus, nor the power of the Phrygian king to turn every thing he touched to gold ; and therefore he often found himself embarrassed in financial matters ; and at one time, it is said, even his instruments used in surveying were actu- ally seized for debt. '' He still took an active part in politics ; and in Au- gust, 1834, he was elected to the legislature by a large majority. In this new field he learned much. He was a persistent student, and had already, by close applica- tion, made up for much of the deficiency of his early education. He analyzed all he read, and gave up noth- ing till he had thoroughly mastered it. This gave him a correctness and precision of thought which never 4* 42 ABRAHAM ZISCOLX. failed him. Naturally modest, he discharged his legisla- tive duties without any of the parade or elation which makes some inexperienced members mere tools of the Avily politician, or personally ridiculous. His clearness and eloquence struck the Hon. John T. Stuart, one of his fellow-members, and he urged the young member to study law. Acting on this advice, he set himself to Blackstone with ardor, his favorite retreat being a wooded knoll in Xew Salem, where, stretched under an oak, he would pore over the doctrines of common law, utterly unconscious of all passing around him, and im- pressing some, at least, of his neighbors with doubts of his entire sanity." The author of the " Pioneer Boy " thus refers to this period of study : " He canvassed the whole subject in the beginning, and he resolved to spend no evenings in social entertainments. He saw that he must do it from sheer necessity, as he would be obliged to use up the night-hours much more economically than the laws of health would permit. And now he was inflexible. His purpose was fixed, and no allurements or promises of pleasure could make him swerve a hair's-breadth there- from. " Springfield was twenty-two miles from Xew Salem ; and yet Lincoln walked there and back on the day pro- posed. He made a loijg day of it, and a wearisome one too. On the following evening, Greene called upon him to learn how he made it. " ' What ! ' he exclaimed, ' did you briug all those books home in your arms ? ' They were ' Blackstone's Commentaries,' in four volumes. " ' Yes, and read one of the volumes more than half of the way,' Lincoln replied. ' Come, now, just examine mo on tliat first volume.' He had a faculty of perusing PREPARATION FOR IIIS WORK. 43 a volume when he was walking, and he often did it. He gained time thereby. '' ' I don't see what you are made of, to endure so/ continued Greene. ' It would use me all up to carry such a load a quarter part of that distance.' " ' I am used to it, you know ; and that makes the dif- ference. But, come, just see what I know about the first part of that volume.' And he passed the first volume to him. " '■ If 3^ou pass muster, you'll want I should admit you to the bar, I suppose,' responded Greene humorously. ' That I shall be glad to do.' '* So he proceeded to examine Lincoln on the first volume ; and he found, to his surprise, that he was well posted on every part of it that he had read. By his close attention, and the ability to concentrate his thoughts, he readily made what he read his own. '^ Thus Lincoln began and continued the study of law, alternating his time between surveying and study ; go- ing to Springfield for books as often as it was necessary, and often pursuing his reading of law far into the night. People were universally interested in his welflxre, and all predicted that he would make his mark by and by. " With such devotion did he employ his time in study and manual labor, denying himself of much that young men generally consider essential, that he might have said with Cicero, ' What others give to public shows and entertainments, to festivity, to amusements, nay, even to mental and bodily rest, I give to study and pliilos- ophy.' Even when he was engaged in the fields survey- ing, his thoughts were upon his books, so that much which he learned at night was fastened in his mind by day. He might have said again with Cicero, * lEven my leisure hours have their occupation.' " 44 ABRAHAM LIXCOLX. In 1836 he obtained a law-license, and in April, 1837, he removed to Springfield, and became the law-partner of Mr. Stuart ; and, when the latter went to Congress, he became a partner of Judge Logan. One touching incident of his law-practice, which paints in vivid colors the character of Lincoln as a man and his ability as a lawyer, is thus narrated in a Cleveland paper : " Some few years since, the eldest son of Mr. Lincoln's old friend, Armstrong, — the chief supporter of his widowed mother, the good old man having some time previous- ly passed from earth, — was arrested on the charge of murder. A young man had been killed during a riot- ous melee in the night-time, at a camp-meeting, and one of his associates stated that the death-wound was inflicted by young Armstrong. A preliminary examination was gone into, at which the accuser testified so positively, that there seemed no doubt of the guilt of the prisoner, and therefore he was held for trial. As is too often the case, the bloody act caused an undue degree of excite- ment in the public mind. Every improper incident in the life of the prisoner, each act which bore the least semblance of rowdyism, each school-boy quarrel, was suddenly remembered and magoified, until they pictured him as a fiend of the most horrible hue. As these ru- mors spread abroad, they were received as gospel truth, and a feverish desire for vengeance seized upon the in- fatuated populace, whilst only prison-bars prevented a horrible death at the hands of a mob. The events were heralded in the county papers, painted in the highest colors, accompanied by rejoicing over the certainty of punishment being meted out to the guilty party. The prisoner, overwlielmed by the circumstances under which he found liimself placed, fell into a melancholy condition bordering on despair; and the widowed mother, looking PREPARATION FOR HIS WORK. 45 through her tears, saw no cause for hope from earthly aid. At this juncture the widow received a letter from Mr. Lincoln, volunteering his services in an effort to save the youth from the impending stroke. Gladly was liis aid accepted, although it seemed impossible for even his sagacity to prevail in such a desperate case ; but the heart of the attorney was in his work, and he set about it with a will that knew no such word as fail. Feeling that the poisoned condition of the public mind was such as to preclude the possibility of impanelling an impartial jury in the court having jurisdiction, he pro- cured a change of venue and a postponement of the trial. He then went studiously to work, unravelling the history of the case, and satisfied himself that his client was the victim of malice, and that the statements of the accuser were a tissue of falsehoods. When the trial was called on, the prisoner, j)ale and emaciated, with hopelessness written on every feature, and accompanied by his half-hoping, halfdespairiug mother, — whose only hope was in a mother's belief of her son's innocence, in the justice of the God she wor- shipped, and in the noble counsel, who, without hope of fee or reward upon earth, had undertaken the cause, — took his seat in the prisoner's box, and with a stony firmness listened to the reading of the indictment, Lin- coln sat quietly by, whilst the large auditory looked on him as though wondering what he could say in defence of one whose guilt they regarded as certain. The examination of the witnesses for the State was begun, and a well-arranged mass of evidence, circum- stantial and positive, was introduced, which seemed to impale the prisoner beyond the possibility of extrication. The counsel for the defence propounded but few ques- 46 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. tions, and those of a character which escitod nc uneasi- ness on the part of the prosecutor ; merely, in most cases, requiring the main witnesses to be definite as to the time and place. When the evidence of the prose- cution was ended, Lincoln introduced a few witnesses to remove some erroneous impressions in regard to the previous character of his cUent, who, though somewhat rowdyish, had never been known to commit a vicious act, and to show that a greater degree of ill-feeling ex- isted between the accuser and the accused than the accused and the deceased. The prosecutor felt that the case was a clear one, and his opening speech was brief and formal. Lincoln arose, while a deathly silence pervaded the vast audience, and in a clear and moderate tone began his argument. Slowly and carefully he reviewed the testimony; pointing out the hitherto unobserved discrepancies in the statements of the principal witness. That which had seemed plain and plausible he made to appear crooked as a serpent's path. The witness had stated that the affair took place at a certain hour in the evening, and that, by the aid of a brightly shining moon, he saw the prisoner inflict the death-blow with a slung-shot. Mr. Lincoln showed that at the hour referred to the moon had not yet appeared above the horizon, and consequently the whole tale was a fabrication. An almost instantaneous change seemed to have been wrought in the minds of his auditors, and the verdict of " Not Guilty" was at the end of every tongue. But the advocate was not content with this intellectual achieve- ment. His whole being had for months l^een bound up in this work of gratitude and mercy ; and as the lava of the over-charged crater bursts from its imprisonment, so great thoughts and burning words leaped forth from PREPARATION FOR HIS WORK. 47 the soul of the eloquent Lincoln. He drew a picture of the perjurer, so horrid and ghastly that the accuser could sit under it no longer, but reeled and staggered from the court-room, Avhilst the audience fancied they could see the brand upon hia brow. Tlien,in words of thrilling pathos, Lincoln appealed to the jurors, as fathers of some who might become fatherless, and husbands of Avives who might be widowed, to yield to no previous impressions, no ill-founded prejudice, but to do his client justice ; and as he alluded to the debt of gratitude which he owed the boy's sire, tears were seen to fall from many eyes unused to weep. It was near night when he concluded by saying, that, if justice was done, — as he believed it would be, — be- fore the sun should set, it would shine upon his client a free man. The jury retired, and the court adjourned for the day. Half an hour had not elapsed, when, as the officers of the court and the volunteer attorney sat at the tea-table of their hotel, a messenge'r announced that tbe jury had returned to their seats. All repaired im- mediately to the court-house ; and whilst the prisoner was coming from the jail, the court-room was filled to overflowing with citizens from the town. When the prisoner and his mother entered, silence reigned as com- pletely as though the house were empty. The foreman of the jury, in answer to the usual inquiry from the court, delivered the verdict of " Not Guilty ! " The widow dropped into the arms of her son, who lifted her up, and told her to look upon him as before, free and in- nocent. Then with the words, "Where is Mr. Lincoln?" he rushed across the room and grasped the hand of his deliverer, whilst his heart was too full for utterance. Lincoln turned his eyes towards the west, where the sun still lingered in view, and then, turning to the youth, 48 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. said, " It is not yet sundoAvii, and you are five ! " I con- fess that my cheeks were not wholly unwet by tears, and I turned from the affecting scene. As I cast a glance be- hind, I saw Abraham Lincoln obeying the divine injunc- tion by comforting the widowed and fatherless. Three times was Mr. Lincoln, after this, elected to the Legislature, and there commenced his political acquaint- ance with Stephen A. Douglas. He then remained several years in private life, practising law with good success. In 1842, he married Miss Mary Todd, daughter of Hon. Robert Todd of Lexington, Kentucky. Their children have been four in number: ''Robert, recently a captain on Gen. Grant's staff, born in 1843 ; a second son, born in 1846, and William, born in 1850, both of whom are dead; and Thaddeus, born in 1853, who stands beside his father in the last photograph taken of the President. " It gives some idea of the prominence of Mr. Lin- coln in Illinois, that, though elected to the Legislature only in 1834, he was a Whig candidate for presidential elector at every election from 1836 to 1852. An early and warm admirer of Henry Clay, he came forward, in 1844, and stumped the entire State of Illinois in his favor, and then crossed into Indiana, attracting attention by the homely force, humor, energy, and eloquence of his addresses. Thus thrown again into active politics, he was elected to Congress in 1846, from the Central Dis- trict of Illinois, by a majority of fifteen hundred, being the only Whig member from the State. Called now into the great council of the nation, Mr. Lincoln took his seat among great men. In the Senate, Clay, Calhoun, Web- ster, Benton, still shaped the destinies and restrained the passions of men; and men of great alulity stood forth in the lower House. ^Ir. Lincoln was opposed to the annex- ation of Texas and to the Mexican War. He voted many PREPABATION FOR HIS WORK. 49 times — 'about forty,' he once said — for the Wilmot Proviso ; thus as early as 1847 showing himself the same friend of freedom in the Territories which he was after- wards when 'bleeding Kansas' received his sympathy. * On other great questions which came before Congress, Mr. Lincoln, being a Whig, took the ground which was held by the great body of his party. He believed in the right of Congress to make appropriations for the im- provement of rivers and harbors. He was in favor of giving the public lands, not to speculators, but to actual occupants and cultivators, at as low rates as possible ; and he was in favor of a protective tariff, and of abolish- ing the franking privilege.' " * In 1858, Mr. Lincoln was nominated by the Repub- licans as candidate for the United-States Senate. Mr. Douglas was his rival on the Democratic ticket. Both stumped the State, and finally held personal debates with each other without personal animosity on the dif- ferent political views they held. Judge Douglas had the grace, at Springfield, to say, " I take great pleasure in bearing testimony to the fact that Mr. Lincoln is a kind- hearted, amiable, good-natured gentleman, with whom no man has a right to pick a quarrel, even if he wanted one. He is a worthy gentleman. I have known him for twenty-five years ; and there is no better citizen, and no kinder-hearted man. He is a fine lawyer, pos- sesses high ability; and there is no objection to him, ex- cept the monstrous revolutionary doctrines with which he is identified." In July, 1858, Lincoln threw down the gauntlet, which Douglas lifted, and seven debates followed, at Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesborough, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy, and Alton. They are said to be unsurpassed in campaign * Raymond's " Life of Lincoln." 50 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. annals for eloquence, ability, adroitness, or comprelien- fiiveness. Often these rival candidates travelled in the same car or carriage, manifesting personal good feeling, yet each contending fearlessly for the mastery when they entered the gladiatorial area for debate. During this campaign, Mr. Lincoln paid a tribute to the Declaration of Independence, which should be read by all who revere his memory : '' These communities, (the thirteen colonies) by their representatives in old In- dendence Hall, said to the world of men, ' We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are born equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' This was their majestic interpretation of the economy of the universe. This was their lofty and wise and noble understanding of the justice of the Creator to his creatures. Yes, gentlemen, to all his creatures, to the Avhole great family of man. In their enlightened belief, nothing stamped with the divine image and likeness was sent into the world to be trodden on and degraded and imbruted by its fellows. They grasped not only the race of men then living, but they reached forward and seized upon the farthest posterity. They created a beacon to guide their children and their children's children, and the countless myriads who should inhabit the earth in other ages. Wise statesmen as they were, they knew the tendency of prosperity to breed tyrants ; and so they established these self-evident truths, that when, in the distant future, some man, some faction, some interest, should set up the doctrine, that none but rich men, or none but white men, or none but Anglo- Saxon white men, were entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, their posterity might look up iigaintothe Declaration of Indepe'ndence, and take cour- PREPARATION FOR HIS WORK. 61 age to renew the battle which their fathers began ; so that truth and justice and mercy, and all the humane and Christian virtues, might not be extinguished from the land ; so that no man would hereafter dare to limit and circumscribe the great principles on which the temple of Liberty was being built. " Now, my countrymen, if you have been taught doc- trines conflicting with the great land-marks of the Decla- ration of Independence ; if you have listened to sugges- tions which would take away from its grandeur and mutilate the fair symmetry of its proportions ; if you have been inclined to believe that all men are not created equal in those inalienable rights enumerated by our charter of liberty, — let me entreat you to come back ; return to the fountain whose waters spring close by the blood of the Revolution. Think nothing of me, take no thought for the political fate of any man whomsoever, but come back to the truths that are in the Declaration of Independence. "You may do any thing with me that you choose, if you will but heed these sacred principles ; you may not only defeat me for the Senate, but you may take me and put me to death. While pretending no indifference to earthly honors, I do claim to be actuated in this contest by some- thing higher than an anxiety for ofBce. I charge you to drop every paltry and insignificant thought for any man's success. It is nothing; lam nothing; Judge Douglas is nothing. But do not destroy that immortal emblem of humanity, — tlie Declaration of American Indcjjendencey Though it is not designed to enlarge this volume by the publication of many of our late President's speeches or letters, the following eloquent outburst of patriotism and devotion to principle must not be omitted. It is the closing part of a speech made in December, 1839. 52 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. "Many free countries have lost their liberties, and ours may lose hers ; but if she shall, may it be my proud- est plume, not that I was the last to desert her, but that I never deserted her ! I know that the great volcano at Washington, aroused and directed by the evil spirit that reigns there, is belching forth the lava of political corruption in a current broad and deep, which is sweep- ing with frightful velocity over the whole length and breadth of the land, bidding fair to leave unscathed no green spot or living thing ; while on its bosom are riding, Hke demons on the waves of hell, the imps of the evil spirit, and fiendishly torturing and taunting all those who dare resist its destroying course with the hopelessness ol their efforts ; and knowing this, I cannot deny that all may be swept away. Broken by it I too may be ; bow to it I never will. The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause which we deem to be just. It shall not deter me. If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy the Almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country deserted by all the world besides, and I, stand- ing alone, hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors. And here, without contemplating consequences, before high heaven, and in the face of the whole world, I swear eternal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and my love. And who that thinks with me will not adopt the oath that I take ? Let none falter who thinks he is right, and we may succeed. But if, after all, we shall fall, be it so. We shall have the proud consolation of saying to our conscience, and to the de- parted shade of our country's freedom, that the course approved by our judgments and adored by our hearts, in PREPARATION FOR HIS WORK. 53 disaster, in chains, in torture, and in death, we never faltered in defending." One of the greatest speeches of his life was made by Mr. Lincoln in New York, at the Cooper Institute, on the 27th of February, 1860, before a crowded house ; the venerable poet, William Cullen Bryant, presiding, and introducing the speaker in highly complimentary terms. It is too long for place on these pages, and its unity so perfect, that it is not easy to quote from it. It was emi- nently patriotic, and did much toward securing for him the favor of the New-York Republicans in the hour of nomination for the Presidency. Some writer has given the following pen-portrait of President Lincoln, which is believed to be correct : — '•' Mr. Lincoln stands six feet and four inches high in his stockings. His frame is not muscular, but gaunt and wiry ; his arms are long, but not unreasonably so for a person of his height ; his lower limbs are not dispropor- tioned to his body. In walking, his gait, though firm, is never brisk. He steps slowly and deliberately, almost always with his head inclined forward, and his hands clasped behind his back. In matters of dress he is by no means precise. Always clean, he is never fashionable ; he is careless, but not slovenly. In manner he is re- markably cordial, and, at the same time, simple. His politeness is always sincere, but never elaborate and oppressive. A warm shake of the hand, and a warmer , smile of recognition, are his methods of greeting his friends. At rest, his features, though those of a man of mark, are not such as belong to a handsome man ; but when his fine dark gray eyes are lighted up by any emo- tion, and his features begin their play, he would be chosen from among a crowd as one who liad in him not only the kindly sentiments which women love, but the heavier 6» 54 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. metal of which full-grown men and presidents are made. His hair is black, and, though thin, is wiry. His head sits well on his shoulders, but beyond that it defies de- scription. It nearer resembles that of Clay than that of Webster ; but it is unlike either. It is very large, and, phrenologically, well-proportioned, betokening power in all its developments. A slightly Roman nose, a wide- cut mouth, and a dark complexion, with the appearance of having been weather-beaten, complete the description. " In his personal habits, Mr. Lincoln is simple as a child. He loves a good dinner, and eats with the appetite which goes with a great brain ; but his food is plain and nutri- tious. He never drinks intoxicating liquors of any sort, not even a glass of wine. He is not addicted to the use of tobacco in any shape. He never was accused of a licentious act in all his life. He never uses profane language." How would the heart of Lincoln's pious mother have rejoiced, could she have foreseen such a record of her son's spotless character and blameless life ! Still another writer pictures his manner in speaking: " As a speaker, he is ready, precise, and fluent. His manner before a popular assembly is as he pleases to make it, being either superlatively ludicrous or very im- pressive. He employs but little gesticulation, but, when he desires to make a point, produces a shrug of his shoulders, an elevation of his eyebrows, a depression of his mouth, and a general malformation of countenance so comically awkward, that it never fails to bring down the house. His enunciation is slow and emphatic ; and his voice, though sharp and powerful, at times has a frequent tendency to dwindle into a shrill and unpleasant sound. But, as before stated, the peculiar characteristic of his delivery is the remarkable mobility of his features, PREPARATION FOR HIS WORK. 55 the frequent contortions of which excite a merriment his words could not produce." A distinguished scholar, who heard him debate with Mr. Douglas, says, '' He then proceeded to defend the Republican party. Here he charged Mr. Douglas with doing nothing for freedom 5 with disregarding the rights and interests of the colored man ; and for about forty minutes he spoke with a power that we have seldom heard equalled. Ther6 was a grandeur in his thoughts, a com- prehensiveness in his arguments, and a binding force in his conclusions, which were perfectly irresistible. The vast throng were silent as death : every eye was fixed upon the speaker, and all gave him serious atten- tion. He was the tall man eloquent : his countenance glowed with animation, and his eye glistened with an in- telligence that made it lustrous. He was no longer awkward and ungainly, but graceful, bold, command- ing." Here the chapter narrating the struggles and suc- cesses of his manhood, previous to his entering on his great work, may fittingly close. It has been conclu- sively shown that the growing man was preparing for the advancing era. Bishop Simpson stated in his funeral address, that, "as early as 1839, Mr. Lincoln presented resolutions in the Legislature asking for emancipation in the District of Columbia, when, with but rare excep- tions, the whole popular mind of his State was opposed to the measure. From that hour he was a steady and uniform friend of humanity, and was preparing for the conflict of later years." Who cannot see God's hand in all these events, though rapidly traced, as the hour and the man approached each other ? The scroll of Time is fast unrolling ; and as 56 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. every day prophecy becomes history, we should learn lessons of patient hope, and humble, earnest, rejoicing faith; for — " Blind nnbelief is sure to err, And scan His Tvork in vain: God is liis own interpreter, And he will make it plain." CHAPTER lY. CALLED TO THE PRESIDENTIAL CHAIR. " The man whom Heaven appoints To govern others should himself first learn To bend his passions to the sway of reason." Thomson's Tanceed .vnd Sigismunda, " Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his breth- ren; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward." 1 Sajsi. xvi. 13. The prepared man now moved toward the appointed place of labor. The hour of destiny struck in Chicago on the 18th of May, 18G0, when the Republican National Convention met '' in an immense building, which the peo- ple of Chicago had put up for the purpose, called the Wigwam. There were four hundred and sixty-five dele- gates. The city was filled with earnest men who had gathered to press the claims of their favorite candidates, and the halls and corridors of all the hotels swarmed and buzzed with an eager crowd, in and out of which darted or pushed or wormed their way the various leaders of party politics." * Mr. Lincoln was then at his home in Springfield. With a not improper anxiety to hear the result of the Conven- tion, he called at the telegraph-office, and there learned how the first and second ballots resulted. He then left, and, going to the office of the " State Journal," sat there quietly conversing with some friends, when a boy placed a note in his hand. It was the announcement of his * Raymond's " Life of Lincoln." 67 58 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. nomination on the third ballot. He looked at it silently, while the friends around him shouted in triumph ; and then, putting it into his pocket, with characteristic calm- ness he said, in his own peculiar way, " There is a little woman down at our house would like to hear this ; I'll go down and tell her ;" and immediately returned to his home. The next day brought to Springfield the Committee appointed by the Convention to inform Mr. Lincoln of- ficially of his nomination. They were escorted to his house by a large concourse of citizens. One * who was present on that occasion, and will never forget that memorable visit to the plain, white, two-story wooden LINCOLN'S nOME IN SPEINGFLELD. house, on the corner of two streets, where the unpre- tending nominee received his ofiicial visitors, stated to the writer of these pages that no refreshments were proi idcd save iccd-water ; and that when citizens of • C. C. Coflia, Esq.,—" Carleton " of the " Boston Journal." CALLED TO THE PRESIDENTIAL CHAIR. 59 Springfield, apprising Mr. Lincoln of the coming Com- mittee, asked him to furnish them with wine, &c., as was customary, he refused, saying he never used liquors himself, and could not give them to others : they insisted on furnishing some themselves; but the noble man answered characteristically, " I will not permit my friends to do in my house what I will not do myself" So temperance principles triumphed, and those citizens could only "put the cup to their neighbors' lip" by taking them afterward to a hotel, where all who wished strong drink could be gratified. The President of the Convention was spokesman for the Committee, and in a brief speech informed the host of his nomination. With an expression half sad, half dig- nified, Mr. Lincoln heard the words ; and, after a short pause of reflection, he answered : — "Mr. Chairjian and Gentlemen of the Committee, — " I tender to you, and through you to the Republican National Convention, and all the people represented in it, my profoundest thanks for the high honor done me, which you now formally announce. Deeply and even painfully sensible of the great responsibility which is inseparable from this high honor, — a responsibility which I could almost wish had fallen upon some one of the far more eminent men and experienced statesmen whose distinguished names were before the Convention, — I shall, by your leave, consider more fully the resolu- tions of the Convention denominated the platform, and without any unnecessary or unreasonable delay respond to you, Mr. Chairman, in writing, not doubting 'that the platform will be found satisfactory, and the nomination gratefully accepted. And now I will not longer defer the pleasure of taking you and each of you by the hand." 60 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. As one incident of this interesting occasion, it is said that " tall Judge Kelly of Pennsylvania, who was one of the Committee, and who is himself a great many feet high, had meanwhile been eying Mr. Lincoln's lofty form with a mixture of admiration, and very likely jealousy: this had not escaped Mr. Lincoln, and, as he shook hands with the judge, he inquired, ' What is your height? ' — ' Six feet three : what is yours, Mr. Lincoln? ' ' Six feet four.' " ' Then,' said the judge, ' Pennsylvania bows to Illinois. My dear man, for years my heart has been aching for a President that I could look up to, and I've found him at last in a land where we thought there were none but little giants.' " * On the 23d of the month, Mr. Lincoln replied formally, by letter, to the official announcement of his nomination, in these words : — '' Hon. Geoege Ashmun. "Sir, — I accept the nomination tendered me by the Convention over which you presided, of which I am formally apprised in a letter of yourself and others acting as a Committee of the Convention for that purpose. The declaration of principles and sentiments which accom- panies your letter meets my approval, and it shall be my care not to violate it or disregard it in any part. Im- ploring the assistance of Divine Providence, and with due regard to the views and feelings of all who were represented in the Convention, to the rights of all the States and Territories and people of the nation, to the inviolability of the Constitution, and the perpetual union, harmony, and prosperity of all, I am most happy to co- * Raymond's " Life of Lincoln." CALLED TO THE PRESIDENTIAL CHAIR. 61 operate for the practical success of the principles de- clared by the Convention. " Your obliged friend and fellow-citizen, "Abraham Lincoln." The enthusiasm of the Republicans during the ensuing presidential campaign was very great, scarcely equalled even in the log-cabin days of " Tippecanoe and Tyler too ; " and, as one after another of the Northern and Western States declared the Chicago nominee to be their choice, the wildest demonstrations of joy were exhibited in torch-light processions, illuminations,