Nor was the situation of the War Democrat, if he were indeed honestly
and sincerely such, much better. He could not shut his eyes to the
fact, that his candidate’s military record, whatever else it might have
established, did not evince very remarkable vigor and celerity in his
movements, as compared with other Generals then and since prominently
before the public. Even had he blundered energetically, in that there
would have been some consolation. The thought, not unpleasant to the
Pendletonian, of the possibility of the General’s death during his term
of office, stirred up certain other thoughts which he would rather have
avoided.

However, it must be said, that, taken as a whole, the Opposition came
up to the work more vigorously than might have been supposed, and
carried on their campaign in as blustering and defiant a style as if
victory were sure to perch upon their banners. There was the usual
amount of cheap enthusiasm, valiant betting, and an unusual amount,
many thought, of cheating--at least, the results of investigations at
Baltimore and Washington, conducted by a military tribunal, to a casual
observer appeared to squint in that direction.

Richmond papers were, for a marvel, quite unanimous in the desire
that Mr. Lincoln should not be reëlected. The rebel Vice-President
declared that the Chicago movement was “the only ray of light which
had come from the North during the war.” European sympathizers with
the rebellion, likewise, were opposed to Mr. Lincoln’s reëlection, and
their organs on the Continent and in the provinces did their best to
abuse him shockingly.

The State elections in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana, occurring in
October, created much consternation in the opposition ranks--that in
the latter State particularly, which had been set down positively as
upon their side, but insisted, upon that occasion, in common with the
first two in pronouncing unequivocally in favor of the Administration
candidates.

The result could no longer be doubtful. Yet the most of the supporters
of McClellan kept up their talk, whatever their thoughts may have been.

No opportunity for talk, even, was afforded when the results of the
election of November 8th became known. Abraham Lincoln and Andrew
Johnson--whom an opposition journal, with rarest refinement and
graceful courtesy, concentrating all its malignity into the intensest
sentence possible, had characterized as “a rail-splitting buffoon and
a boorish tailor, both from the backwoods, both growing up in uncouth
ignorance”--these men of the people carried every loyal State, except
Kentucky, New Jersey, and Delaware, the vote of soldiers in service
having been almost universally given to them.

Of the four million, thirty-four thousand, seven hundred and
eighty-nine votes cast, Mr. Lincoln received, according to official
returns, two million, two hundred and twenty-three thousand, and
thirty-five; a majority on the aggregate popular vote, of four hundred
and eleven thousand, two hundred and eighty-one.

The President elect by a plurality in 1860, he was reëlected in 1864 by
a majority decisive and unmistakable.

Having been serenaded early in the morning following his reëlection,
by Pennsylvanians then in Washington, he thus gave utterance to his
feelings:

  “FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:--Even before I had been informed
  by you that this compliment was paid me by loyal citizens of
  Pennsylvania friendly to me, I had inferred that you were of
  that portion of my countrymen who think that the best interests
  of the nation are to be subserved by the support of the present
  administration. I do not pretend to say that you, who think so,
  embrace all the patriotism and loyalty of the country; but I do
  believe, and I trust without personal interest, that the welfare
  of the country does require that such support and indorsement be
  given. I earnestly believe that the consequences of this day’s
  work if it be as you assume, and as now seems probable, will be to
  the lasting advantage if not to the very salvation of the country.
  I cannot, at this hour, say what has been the result of the
  election, but whatever it may be, I have no desire to modify this
  opinion: that all who have labored to-day in behalf of the Union
  organization, have wrought for the best interest of their country
  and the world, not only for the present, but for all future ages.
  I am thankful to God for this approval of the people; but while
  deeply grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know
  my heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph.
  I do not impugn the motives of any one opposed to me. It is no
  pleasure to me to triumph over any one, but I give thanks to the
  Almighty for this evidence of the people’s resolution to stand by
  free government and the rights of humanity.”

When the result was definitely known, at a serenade given in his honor
on the night of November 10th, by the various Lincoln and Johnson Clubs
of the District, he said:

  “It has long been a grave question whether any Government, not
  too strong for the liberties of its people, can be strong enough
  to maintain its existence in great emergencies. On this point the
  present rebellion brought our Government to a severe test, and a
  Presidential election occurring in a regular course during the
  rebellion, added not a little to the strain.

  “If the loyal people united were put to the utmost of their
  strength by the rebellion, must they not fail when divided and
  partially paralyzed by a political war among themselves? But
  the election was a necessity--we can not have free government
  without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forego
  or postpone a national election, it must fairly claim to have
  already conquered and ruined us. The strife of the election is
  but human nature practically applied to the facts of the case.
  What has occurred in this case must ever recur in similar cases.
  Human nature will not change. In any future great national trial,
  compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak and as strong,
  as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. Let us, therefore, study
  the incidents of this, as philosophy to learn wisdom from; and none
  of them as wrongs to be revenged.

  “But the election, along with its incidental and undesirable
  strife, has done good too. It has demonstrated that a people’s
  government can sustain a national election in the midst of a great
  civil war. Until now it has not been known to the world that this
  was a possibility. It shows also how sound and how strong we still
  are. It shows that, even among the candidates of the same party, he
  who is most devoted to the Union, and most opposed to treason, can
  receive most of the people’s votes. It shows also, to the extent
  yet known, that we have more men now than we had when the war
  began. Gold is good in its place; but living, brave, and patriotic
  men are better than gold.

  “But the rebellion continues; and now that the election is over,
  may not all having a common interest reunite in a common effort to
  save our common country? For my own part, I have striven and shall
  strive to avoid placing any obstacle in the way. So long as I have
  been here I have not willingly planted a thorn in any man’s bosom.
  While I am duly sensible to the high compliment of a reëlection,
  and duly grateful, as I trust, to Almighty God for having directed
  my countrymen to a right conclusion, as I think, for their good,
  it adds nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may be
  disappointed by the result.

  “May I ask those who have not differed with me to join with me in
  this same spirit toward those who have? And now let me close by
  asking three hearty cheers for our brave soldiers and seamen and
  their gallant and skilful commanders.”

As indicative of Mr. Lincoln’s warmth and tenderness of heart the
following letter will be read with interest. It was addressed to a poor
widow, in Boston, whose sixth son, then recently wounded, was lying in
a hospital and bears date November 21st, 1864.

  “DEAR MADAM:--I have been shown in the files of the War Department
  a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts, that you
  are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field
  of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of
  mine, which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a
  loss so overwhelming; but I cannot refrain from tendering to you
  the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic
  they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage
  the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished
  memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be
  yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom.

    “Yours very sincerely and respectfully,
    “ABRAHAM LINCOLN.”

The Thirty-eighth Congress commenced its second session on the 5th of
December, 1864. On the following day Mr. Lincoln transmitted what was
to be his last annual message:

  “FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:--Again
  the blessings of health and abundant harvests claim our profoundest
  gratitude to Almighty God.

  “The condition of our foreign affairs is reasonably satisfactory.

  “Mexico continues to be a theatre of civil war. While our political
  relations with that country have undergone no change, we have
  at the same time strictly maintained neutrality between the
  belligerents.

  “At the request of the States of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, a
  competent engineer has been authorized to make a survey of the
  river San Juan and the port of San Juan. It is a source of
  much satisfaction that the difficulties, which for a moment
  excited some political apprehension, and caused a closing of the
  inter-oceanic transit route, have been amicably adjusted, and that
  there is a good prospect that the route will soon be re-opened with
  an increase of capacity and adaptation.

  “We could not exaggerate either the commercial or the political
  importance of that great improvement. It would be doing injustice
  to an important South American State not to acknowledge the
  directness, frankness, and cordiality with which the United
  States of Columbia has entered into intimate relation with this
  Government. A Claim Convention has been constituted to complete the
  unfinished work of the one which closed its session in 1861.

  “The new liberal Constitution of Venezuela having gone into effect
  with the universal acquiescence of the people, the Government under
  it has been recognised, and diplomatic intercourse with it has been
  opened in a cordial and friendly spirit.

  “The long-deferred Avis Island claim has been satisfactorily
  paid and discharged. Mutual payments have been made of the
  claims awarded by the late Joint Commission for the settlement
  of claims between the United States and Peru. An earnest and
  candid friendship continues to exist between the two countries;
  and such efforts as were in my power have been used to prevent
  misunderstanding, and avert a threatened war between Peru and Spain.

  “Our relations are of the most friendly nature with Chili, the
  Argentine Republic, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Paraguay, San Salvador,
  and Hayti. During the past year, no differences of any kind have
  arisen with any of these Republics. And, on the other hand, their
  sympathies with the United States are constantly expressed with
  cordiality and earnestness.

  “The claims arising from the seizure of the cargo of the brig
  Macedonian, in 1821, have been paid in full by the Government of
  Chili.

  “Civil war continues in the Spanish port of San Domingo, apparently
  without prospect of an early close.

  “Official correspondence has been freely opened with Liberia, and
  it gives us a pleasing view of social and political progress in
  that Republic. It may be expected to derive new vigor from American
  influence, improved by the rapid disappearance of slavery in the
  United States.

  “I solicit your authority to promise to the Republic a gunboat,
  at a moderate cost, to be reimbursed to the United States by
  instalments. Such a vessel is needed for the safety of that State
  against the native African races, and in Liberian hands it would be
  more effective in arresting the African slave-trade than a squadron
  in our own hands.

  “The possession of the least authorized naval force would stimulate
  a generous ambition in the Republic, and the confidence which we
  should manifest by furnishing it would win forbearance and favor
  toward the colony from all civilized nations. The proposed overland
  telegraph between America and Europe by the way of Behring Strait
  and Asiatic Russia, which was sanctioned by Congress at the last
  session, has been undertaken under very favorable circumstances by
  an association of American citizens, with the cordial good will and
  support as well of this Government as of those of Great Britain and
  Russia.

  “Assurances have been received from most of the South American
  States of their high appreciation of the enterprise and their
  readiness to coöperate in constructing lines tributary to that
  world-encircling communication.

  “I learn with much satisfaction that the noble design of a
  telegraphic communication between the eastern coast of America and
  Great Britain has been renewed with full expectation of its early
  accomplishment.

  “Thus it is hoped that with the return of domestic peace the
  country will be able to resume with energy and advantage her former
  high career of commerce and civilization. Our very popular and
  able representative in Egypt died in April last.

  “An unpleasant altercation which arose between the temporary
  incumbent and the Government of the Pacha, resulted in a suspension
  of intercourse. The evil was promptly corrected on the arrival
  of the successor in the consulate, and our relations with Egypt
  as well as our relations with the Barbary Powers, are entirely
  satisfactory.

  “The rebellion which has so long been flagrant in China, has at
  last been suppressed with the coöperating good offices of this
  Government and of the other Western Commercial States. The judicial
  consular establishment has become very difficult and onerous, and
  it will need legislative requisition to adapt it to the extension
  of our commerce, and to the more intimate intercourse which has
  been instituted with the Government and people of that vast empire.

  “China seems to be accepting with hearty good-will the conventional
  laws which regulate commerce and social intercourse among the
  Western nations.

  “Owing to the peculiar situation of Japan, and the anomalous form
  of its Government, the action of that Empire in performing treaty
  stipulations is inconsistent and capricious. Nevertheless good
  progress has been effected by the Western Powers, moving with
  enlightened concert. Our own pecuniary claims have been allowed, or
  put in course of settlement, and the Inland Sea has been reopened
  to Commerce.

  “There is reason also to believe that these proceedings have
  increased rather than diminished the friendship of Japan toward the
  United States.

  “The ports of Norfolk, Fernandino, and Pensacola have been opened
  by proclamation.

  “It is hoped that foreign merchants will now consider whether it
  is not safer and more profitable to themselves as well as just to
  the United States, to resort to these and other open ports, than it
  is to pursue, through many hazards and at vast cost, a contraband
  trade with other ports which are closed, if not by actual military
  operations, at least by a lawful and effective blockade.

  “For myself, I have no doubt of the power and duty of the
  Executive, under the laws of nations, to exclude enemies of the
  human race from an asylum in the United States. If Congress should
  think that proceedings in such cases lack the authority of law, or
  ought to be further regulated by it, I recommend that provision
  be made for effectually preventing foreign slave-traders from
  acquiring domicil and facilities for their criminal occupation in
  our country.

  “It is possible that if this were a new and open question, the
  maritime powers, with the light they now enjoy, would not concede
  the privileges of a naval belligerent to the insurgents of the
  United States, destitute as they are and always have been, equally
  of ships, and of ports and harbors.

  “Disloyal enemies have been neither less assiduous nor more
  successful during the last year than they were before that time,
  in their efforts, under favor of that privilege, to embroil our
  country in foreign wars. The desire and determination of the
  maritime States to defeat that design are believed to be as sincere
  as, and cannot be more earnest than our own.

  “Nevertheless, unforseen political difficulties have arisen,
  especially in Brazilian and British ports, and on the Northern
  boundary of the United States, which have required and are likely
  to continue to require the practice of constant vigilance, and a
  just and conciliatory spirit on the part of the United States,
  as well as of the nations concerned and their Governments.
  Commissioners have been appointed under the treaty with Great
  Britain, in the adjustment of the claims of the Hudson’s Bay
  and Puget Sound Agricultural Companies in Oregon, and are now
  proceeding to the execution of the trust assigned to them.

  “In view of the insecurity of life in the region adjacent to the
  Canadian border by recent assaults and depredations committed by
  inimical and desperate persons who are harbored there, it has
  been thought proper to give notice that after the expiration of
  six months, the period conditionally stipulated in the existing
  arrangements with Great Britain, the United States must hold
  themselves at liberty to increase their naval armament upon the
  lakes, if they shall find that proceeding necessary.

  “The condition of the Border will necessarily come into
  consideration in connection with the continuing or modifying the
  rights of transit from Canada through the United States, as well
  as the regulation of imposts, which were temporarily established
  by the Reciprocity Treaty of the 5th of June, 1864. I desire,
  however, to be understood while making this statement that the
  Colonial authorities are not deemed to be intentionally unjust or
  unfriendly toward the United States; but, on the contrary, there
  is every reason to expect that, with the approval of the Imperial
  Government, they will take the necessary measures to prevent new
  incursions across the border.

  “The act passed at the last session for the encouragement of
  immigration has, as far as was possible, been put into operation.

  “It seems to need an amendment which will enable the officers
  of the Government to prevent the practice of frauds against the
  immigrants while on their way and on their arrival in the ports,
  so as to secure them here a free choice of avocations and place of
  settlement.

  “A liberal disposition toward this great National policy is
  manifested by most of the European States, and ought to be
  reciprocated on our part by giving the immigrants effective
  National protection. I regard our immigrants as one of the
  principal replenishing streams which are appointed by Providence
  to repair the ravages of internal war, and its wastes of National
  strength and health.

  “All that is necessary is, to secure the flow of that stream in its
  present fullness, and to that end, the Government must, in every
  way, make it manifest that it neither needs nor designs to impose
  involuntary military service upon those who come from other lands
  to cast their lot in our country.

  “The financial affairs of the Government have been successfully
  administered. During the last year the legislation of the last
  session of Congress has beneficially affected the revenue,
  although sufficient time has not yet elapsed to experience the
  full effect of several of the provisions of the act of Congress
  imposing increased taxation. The receipts during the year, from all
  sources, upon the basis of warrants signed by the Secretary of the
  Treasury, including loans and the balance in the Treasury on the
  first day of July, 1863, were $1,394,796,007 62, and the aggregate
  disbursements, upon the same basis, were $1,298,056,101 89, leaving
  a balance in the Treasury, as shown by warrants, of $96,739,905
  73. Deduct from these amounts the amount of the principal of the
  public debt redeemed, and the amount of issues in substitution
  therefor, and the actual cash operations of the Treasury were:
  Receipts, $3,075,646 77; disbursements, $865,734,087 76; which
  leaves a cash balance in the Treasury of $18,842,558 71. Of the
  receipts, there were derived from customs, $102,316,152 99; from
  lands, $588,333 29; from direct taxes, $475,648 96; from internal
  revenues, $109,741,134 10; from miscellaneous sources, $47,511,448;
  and from loans applied to actual expenditures, including former
  balance, $623,443,929 13. There were disbursed for the civil
  service, $27,505,599 46; for pensions and Indians, $7,517,930 97;
  for the War Department, $60,791,842 97; for the Navy Department,
  $85,733,292 79; for interest of the public debts, $53,685,421 69;
  making an aggregate of $865,234,081 86, and leaving a balance in
  the Treasury of $18,842,558 71, as before stated.

  “For the actual receipts and disbursements for the first quarter,
  and the estimated receipts and disbursements for the three
  remaining quarters of the current fiscal year, and the general
  operations of the Treasury in detail, I refer you to the report of
  the Secretary of the Treasury.

  “I concur with him in the opinion, that the proportion of the
  moneys required to meet the expenses consequent upon the war
  derived from taxation, should be still further increased; and I
  earnestly invite your attention to this subject, to the end that
  there may be such additional legislation as shall be required to
  meet the just expectations of the Secretary.

  “The public debt, on the first day of May last, as appears by the
  books of the Treasury, amounted to $1,740,690,489 49. Probably,
  should the war continue for another year, that amount may be
  increased by not far from five hundred millions. Held, as it is
  for the most part, by our own people, it has become a substantial
  branch of national, though private property.

  “For obvious reasons, the more nearly this property can be
  distributed among all the people, the better. To forward general
  distribution, greater inducements to become owners, might, perhaps,
  with good effect and without injury, be presented to persons of
  limited means. With this view, I suggest whether it might not be
  both expedient and competent for Congress to provide that a limited
  amount of some future issue of public securities might be held, by
  any _bonâ fide_ purchaser, exempt from taxation and from seizure
  for debt, under such restrictions and limitations as might be
  necessary to guard against abuse of so important a privilege. This
  would enable prudent persons to set aside a small annuity against a
  possible day of want.

  “Privileges like these would render the possession of such
  securities, to the amount limited, most desirable to every person
  of small means who might be able to save enough for the purpose.
  The great advantage of citizens being creditors as well as debtors,
  is obvious. Men readily perceive that they cannot be much
  oppressed by a debt which they owe to themselves.

  “The public debt on the first day of July last, although somewhat
  exceeding the estimate of the Secretary of the Treasury made to
  Congress at the commencement of last session, falls short of the
  estimate of that office made in the succeeding December as to
  its probable amount at the beginning of this year, by the sum of
  $3,995,079 33. This fact exhibits a satisfactory condition and
  conduct of the operations of the Treasury.

  “The National banking system is proving to be acceptable to
  capitalists and the people. On the 25th day of November, five
  hundred and eighty-four National Banks had been organized, a
  considerable number of which were conversions from State banks.
  Changes from the State system to the National system are rapidly
  taking place, and it is hoped that very soon there will be in
  the United States no banks of issue not authorized by Congress,
  and no bank-note circulation not secured by the government. That
  the government and the people will derive general benefit from
  this change in the banking system of the country can hardly be
  questioned.

  “The National system will create a reliable and permanent influence
  in support of the national credit, and protect the people against
  losses in the use of paper money. Whether or not any further
  legislation is advisable for the suppression of State bank issues,
  it will be for Congress to determine. It seems quite clear that the
  Treasury cannot be satisfactorily conducted unless the government
  can exercise restraining power over the bank-note circulation of
  the country.

  “The Report of the Secretary of War, and the accompanying
  documents, will detail the campaigns of the armies in the field
  since the date of the last annual Message, and also the operations
  of the several administrative bureaus of the War Department during
  the last year.

  “It will also specify the measures deemed essential for the
  national defence, and to keep up and supply the requisite military
  force.

  “The Report of the Secretary of the Navy presents a comprehensive
  and satisfactory exhibit of the affairs of that department and of
  the naval service. It is a subject of congratulation and laudable
  pride to our countrymen, that a navy of such vast proportions has
  been organized in so brief a period and conducted with so much
  efficiency and success.

  “The general exhibits of the Navy, including vessels under
  construction, on the first of December, 1864, shows a total of 671
  vessels, carrying 4,610 guns, and 510,396 tons--being an actual
  increase during the year over and above all losses by shipwreck
  or in battle, of 83 vessels, 167 guns, and 42,427 tons. The total
  number at this time in the naval service, including officers, is
  about 51,000. There have been captured by the Navy during the
  year, 324 vessels, and the whole number of naval captures since
  hostilities commenced is 1,379, of which 267 are steamers. The
  gross proceeds arising from the sale of condemned prize property,
  thus far reported, amount to $14,396,250 51.

  “A large amount of such proceeds is still under adjudication and
  yet to be reported. The total expenditures of the Navy Department,
  of every description, including the cost of the immense squadrons
  that have been called into existence, from the 4th of March, 1861,
  to the 1st of November, 1864, are $238,647,262 35. Your favorable
  consideration is invited to the various recommendations of the
  Secretary of the Navy, especially in regard to a navy yard and
  suitable establishment for the construction and repair of iron
  vessels, and the machinery and armature for our ships, to which
  reference was made in my last annual message.

  “Your attention is also invited to the views expressed in the
  report in relation to the legislation of Congress at its last
  session in respect to prizes on our inland waters.

  “I cordially concur in the recommendation of the Secretary as to
  the propriety of creating the new rank of Vice-admiral in our naval
  service.

  “Your attention is invited to the report of the Postmaster-General,
  for a detailed account of the operations and financial condition of
  the Post-Office Department. The postal revenues for the year ending
  June 30, 1864, amounted to $12,438,253 78, and the expenditures
  to $12,644,786 20; the excess of expenditures over receipts being
  $206,532 42.

  “The views presented by the Postmaster-General on the subject of
  special grants by the Government in aid of the establishment of new
  lines of ocean mail steamships, and the policy he recommends for
  the development of increased commercial intercourse with adjacent
  and neighboring countries, should receive the careful consideration
  of Congress.

  “It is of noteworthy interest that the steady expansion of
  population, improvement and governmental institutions over the new
  and unoccupied portions of our country have scarcely been checked,
  much less impeded or destroyed by our great civil war, which,
  at first glance, would seem to have absorbed almost the entire
  energies of the Nation.

  “The organization and admission of the State of Nevada has been
  completed in conformity with law, and thus our excellent system is
  firmly established in the mountains which once seemed a barren and
  uninhabitable waste between the Atlantic States and those which
  have grown up on the coast of the Pacific Ocean.

  “The Territories of the Union are generally in a condition of
  prosperity and growth. Idaho and Montana, by reason of their
  great distance and the interruption of communication with them by
  Indian hostilities, have been only partially organized; but it is
  understood that those difficulties are about to disappear, which
  will permit their governments, like those of the others, to go into
  speedy and full operation.

  “As intimately connected with and promotive of this material
  growth of the Nation, I ask the attention of Congress to the
  valuable information and important recommendation relating to the
  public lands, Indian affairs, the Pacific Railroad, and mineral
  discoveries contained in the report of the Secretary of the
  Interior, which is herewith transmitted, and which report also
  embraces the subjects of the patents, pensions, and other topics of
  public interest pertaining to his Department.

  “The quantity of public land disposed of during the five quarters
  ending on the 30th of September last, was 4,221,342 acres, of
  which 1,538,614 acres were entered under the Homestead law. The
  remainder was located with military land warrants, agricultural
  script certified to States for railroads, and sold for cash. The
  cash received from sales and location fees was $1,019,446. The
  income from sales during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1864, was
  $678,007 21, against $136,077 95, received during the preceding
  year. The aggregate number of acres surveyed during the year has
  been equal to the quantity disposed of, and there are open to
  settlement about 133,000,000 acres of surveyed land.

  “The great enterprise of connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific
  States by railways and telegraph lines has been entered upon
  with a vigor that gives assurance of success, notwithstanding
  the embarrassments arising from the prevailing high prices of
  materials and labor. The route of the main line of the road has
  been definitely located for one hundred miles westward from the
  initial point at Omaha City, Nebraska, and a preliminary location
  of the Pacific Railroad of California has been made from Sacramento
  eastward to the great bend of Mucker river, in Nevada. Numerous
  discoveries of gold, silver and cinnabar mines have been added
  to the many heretofore known, and the country occupied by the
  Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains and the subordinate ranges now
  teems with enterprising labor which is richly remunerative. It is
  believed that the products of the mines of precious metals in that
  region have, during the year reached, if not exceeded, $100,000,000
  in value.

  “It was recommended in my last annual message, that our Indian
  system be remodeled. Congress, at its last session, acting upon
  the recommendation, did provide for reorganizing the system in
  California, and it is believed that under the present organization
  the management of the Indians there will be attended with
  reasonable success. Much yet remains to be done to provide for the
  proper government of the Indians in other parts of the country,
  to render it secure for the advancing settler and to provide
  for the welfare of the Indian. The Secretary reiterates his
  recommendations, and to them the attention of Congress is invited.

  “The liberal provisions made by Congress for paying pensions to
  invalid soldiers and sailors of the Republic, and to the widows,
  orphans and dependent mothers of those who have fallen in battle,
  or died of disease contracted, or of wounds received in the service
  of their country, have been diligently administered.

  “There have been added to the pension rolls during the year ending
  the thirtieth day of June last, the names of 16,770 invalid
  soldiers, and of 271 disabled seamen, making the present number of
  army invalid pensioners 22,767, and of navy invalid pensioners 712.
  Of widows, orphans and mothers, 22,198 have been placed on the army
  pension rolls, and 248 on the navy rolls.

  “The present number of Army pensioners of this class is 25,433, and
  of Navy pensioners 793. At the beginning of the year, the number
  of revolutionary pensioners was 1,430. Only twelve of them were
  soldiers, of whom seven have since died. The remainder are those
  who, under the law, receive pensions because of relationship to
  revolutionary soldiers.

  “During the year ending the thirtieth of June, 1864, $4,504,616 92
  have been paid to pensioners of all classes.

  “I cheerfully commend to your continued patronage the benevolent
  institutions of the District of Columbia, which have hitherto been
  established or fostered by Congress, and respectfully refer for
  information concerning them, and in relation to the Washington
  Aqueduct, the Capitol, and other matters of local interest to the
  report of the Secretary.

  “The Agricultural Department, under the supervision of its
  present energetic and faithful head, is rapidly commending itself
  to the great and vital interest it was intended to advance. It
  is peculiarly the People’s Department, in which they feel more
  directly concerned than in any other, I commend it to the continued
  attention and fostering care of Congress.

  “The war continues. Since the last annual message, all the
  important lines and positions then occupied by our forces have been
  maintained, and our armies have steadily advanced, thus liberating
  the regions left in the rear, so that Missouri, Kentucky,
  Tennessee, and parts of other States have again produced reasonably
  fair crops.

  “The most remarkable feature in the military operations of the
  year, is General Sherman’s attempted march of three hundred miles
  directly through insurgent regions. It tends to show a great
  increase of our relative strength, that our General-in-chief should
  feel able to confront and hold in check every active force of the
  enemy, and yet to detach a well-appointed, large army to move on
  such an expedition. The result not being yet known, conjecture in
  regard to it is not here indulged.

  “Important movements have also occurred during the year to the
  effect of moulding society for ductility in the Union. Although
  short of complete success, it is much in the right direction
  that twelve thousand citizens in each of the States of Arkansas
  and Louisiana, have organized loyal State governments with free
  Constitutions, and are earnestly struggling to maintain and
  administer them.

  “The movement in the same direction, more extensive, though less
  definite, in Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee, should not be
  overlooked.

  “But Maryland presents the example of complete success. Maryland
  is secure to liberty and union for all the future. The genius of
  rebellion will no more claim Maryland. Like another foul spirit,
  being driven out, it may seek to tear her but it will rule her no
  more.

  “At the last Session of Congress, a proposed amendment of the
  Constitution abolishing slavery throughout the United States,
  passed the Senate, but failed, for lack of the requisite two-thirds
  vote in the House of Representatives. Although the present is the
  same Congress, and nearly the same members, and without question
  on the patriotism of those who stood in opposition, I venture to
  recommend the consideration and passage of the measure at the
  present session.

  “Of course the abstract question is not changed, but an intervening
  election shows almost certainly that the next Congress will pass
  the measure, if this does not. Hence there is only a question of
  time as to when the proposed amendment will go to the States for
  their action; and as it is to go at all events, may we not agree
  that the sooner the better? It is not claimed that the election
  has imposed a duty on members to change their views or their votes
  any further than as an additional element to be considered. Their
  judgment may be affected by it.

  “It is the voice of the people, now for the first time heard upon
  the question. In a great national crisis like ours, unanimity of
  action among those seeking a common end is very desirable, almost
  indispensable, and yet an approach to such unanimity is attainable,
  only as some deference shall be paid to the will of the majority,
  simply because it is the will of the majority.

  “In this case, the common end is the maintenance of the Union,
  and among the means to secure that end, such will, through the
  election, is most clearly declared in favor of such Constitutional
  Amendment. The most reliable indication of public purpose in this
  country is derived through our popular election. Judging by the
  recent canvass and its result, the purpose of the people within the
  loyal States to maintain the integrity of the Union was never more
  firm nor more nearly unanimous than now.

  “The extraordinary calmness and good order with which the millions
  of voters met and mingled at the polls, give strong assurance of
  this. Not only those who supported the ‘Union Ticket,’ so called,
  but a great majority of the opposing party also, may be fairly
  claimed to entertain and to be actuated by the same purpose. It is
  an unanswerable argument to this effect that no candidate to any
  office whatever, high or low, has ventured to seek votes on the
  avowal that he was for giving up the Union.

  “There has been much impugning of motives, and heated controversy
  as to the proper means and best mode of advancing the Union cause,
  but in the distinct issue of Union or no Union, the politicians
  have shown their distinctive knowledge that there is no diversity
  among the people. In affording the people a fair opportunity of
  showing one to another and to the world this firmness and unanimity
  of purpose, the election has been of vast value to the National
  cause.

  “The election has exhibited another fact not less valuable to be
  known in the fact that we do not approach exhaustion in the most
  important branch of the national resources, that of living men.
  While it is melancholy to reflect that the war has filled so many
  graves, and carried mourning to so many hearts, it is some relief
  to know that, compared with the surviving, the fallen have been
  so few. While corps, and divisions, and brigades, and regiments
  have formed, and fought and dwindled, and gone out of existence,
  a great majority of the men who composed them are still living.
  The same is true of the naval service. The election returns prove
  this. So many votes could not else be found. The States regularly
  holding elections, both now and four years ago, to wit California,
  Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine,
  Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New
  Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode
  Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, cast 3,982,011 votes
  now against 3,870,222 then, to which are to be added 33,762 cast
  now in the new States of Kansas and Nevada, which States did not
  vote in 1860; thus swelling the aggregate to 4,075,773, and the net
  increase during the three years and a half of war to 145,751.

  “To this, again, should be added the number of all soldiers in
  the field from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware,
  Indiana, Illinois, and California, who, by the laws of those
  States, could not vote away from their homes, and which number
  cannot be less than ninety thousand. Nor yet is this all. The
  number in organized territories is triple now what it was four
  years ago, while thousands, white and black, join us as the
  National army forces back the insurgent lines. So much is shown,
  affirmatively and negatively, by the election.

  “It is not natural to inquire how the increase has been produced,
  or to show that it would have been greater but for the war, which
  is partially true; the important fact remaining demonstrated, that
  we have more men now than we had when the war began; that we are
  not exhausted, nor in process of exhaustion; that we are gaining
  strength, and may, if need be, maintain the contest indefinitely.
  This as to men.

  “National resources are now more complete and abundant than ever;
  the National resources, then, are unexhausted, and, as we believe,
  inexhaustible. The public purpose to reëstablish and maintain the
  National authority is unchanged, and, as we believe, unchangeable.
  The manner of continuing the effort remains to choose. On careful
  consideration of all the evidence accessible, it seems to me that
  no attempts at negotiation with the insurgent leader could result
  in any good.

  “He would accept of nothing short of the severance of the Union.
  His declarations to this effect are explicit and oft-repeated. He
  does not attempt to deceive us. He affords us no excuse to deceive
  ourselves. We cannot voluntarily yield it. Between him and us the
  issue is distinct, simple, and inflexible. It is an issue which can
  only be tried by war, and decided by victory.

  “If we yield, we are beaten; if the Southern people fail him, he is
  beaten--either way, it would be the victory and defeat following
  war. What is true, however, of him who heads the insurgent cause,
  is not necessarily true of those who follow. Although he cannot
  reaccept the Union, they can. Some of them, we know, already desire
  peace and reunion. The number of such may increase.

  “They can at any moment have peace simply by laying down their arms
  and submitting to the National authority under the Constitution.
  After so much, the Government could not, if it would, maintain war
  against them. The loyal people would not sustain, or allow it. If
  questions should remain, we would adjust them by the peaceful means
  of legislation, conference, courts, and votes.

  “Operating only in constitutional and lawful channels, some certain
  and other possible questions are and would be beyond the Executive
  power to adjust; for instance, the admission of members into
  Congress, and whatever might require the appropriation of money.

  “The Executive power itself would be really diminished by the
  cessation of actual war. Pardons and remissions of forfeiture,
  however, would still be within Executive control. In what spirit
  and temper this control would be exercised, can be fairly judged of
  by the past. A year ago general pardon and amnesty upon specified
  terms were offered to all except certain designated classes, and it
  was at this same time made known that the excepted classes were
  still within contemplation of special clemency.

  “During the year many availed themselves of the general provision,
  and many more would, only that the sign of bad faith in some led to
  such precautionary measures as rendered the practical power less
  easy and certain. During the same time, also, special pardons have
  been granted to individuals of excepted classes, and no voluntary
  individual application has been denied.

  “Thus, practically, the door has been for a full year open to all,
  except such as were not in condition to make free choice; that is,
  such as were in custody or under constraint. It is still so open to
  all; but the time may come, probably will come, when public duty
  shall demand that it be closed, and that, in lieu, more vigorous
  measures than heretofore shall be adopted.

  “In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to the National
  authority, on the part of the insurgents, as the only indispensable
  condition to ending the war on the part of the Government, I
  retract nothing heretofore said as to slavery. I repeat the
  declaration made a year ago, that while I remain in my present
  position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the Emancipation
  Proclamation, nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free
  by the terms of that proclamation or by any of the acts of Congress.

  “If the people should, by whatever mode, or means, make it an
  Executive duty to re-enslave such persons, another, and not I, must
  be their instrument to perform it.

  “In stating a single condition of peace, I mean simply to say that
  the war will cease on the part of the Government whenever it shall
  have ceased on the part of those who began it.

  “ABRAHAM LINCOLN.”

CHAPTER XXIII.

TIGHTENING THE LINES.

  Speech at a Serenade--Reply to a Presentation Address--Peace
  Rumors--Rebel Commissioners--Instructions to Secretary Seward--
  The Conference in Hampton Roads--Result--Extra Session of the
  Senate--Military Situation--Sherman--Charleston--Columbia--
  Wilmington--Fort Fisher--Sheridan--Grant--Rebel Congress--
  Second Inauguration--Inaugural--English Comment--Proclamation to
  Deserters.

As illustrative of the genial, pleasant manner of the President, take
the following, in response to a serenade, December 6th, 1864:

  “FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:--I believe I shall never be old
  enough to speak without embarrassment when I have nothing to talk
  about. I have no good news to tell you, and yet I have no bad news
  to tell. We have talked of elections until there is nothing more
  to say about them. The most interesting news we now have is from
  Sherman. We all know where he went in at, but I can’t tell where he
  will come out at. I will now close by proposing three cheers for
  General Sherman and his army.”

On the 24th of January, 1865, having been made the recipient of a
beautiful vase of skeleton leaves, gathered from the battle-field of
Gettysburg, which had been subscribed for at the great Sanitary Fair,
held in Philadelphia during the previous summer, in reply to the warmly
sympathetic and appreciative address of the Chairman of the Committee
entrusted with the presentation, he said:

  “REVEREND SIR, AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--I accept, with emotions
  of profoundest gratitude, the beautiful gift you have been pleased
  to present to me. You will, of course, expect that I acknowledge
  it. So much has been said about Gettysburg and so well said, that
  for me to attempt to say more may perhaps, only serve to weaken the
  force of that which has already been said.

  “A most graceful and eloquent tribute was paid to the patriotism
  and self-denying labors of the American ladies, on the occasion of
  the consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, by our
  illustrious friend, Edward Everett, now, alas! departed from earth.
  His life was a truly great one, and, I think, the greatest part of
  it was that which crowned its closing years.

  “I wish you to read, if you have not already done so, the glowing,
  and eloquent, and truthful words which he then spoke of the women
  of America. Truly the services they have rendered to the defenders
  of our country in this perilous time, and are yet rendering, can
  never be estimated as they ought to be.

  “For your kind wishes to me, personally, I beg leave to render you,
  likewise, my sincerest thanks. I assure you they are reciprocated.
  And now, gentlemen and ladies, may God bless you all.”

With the opening of the new year, the air--as often before--was filled
with rumors that the insurgents were anxious to negotiate for peace.

Some there were, even among Mr. Lincoln’s friends and supporters, who
were apprehensive that his “To whom it may concern” announcement of
the previous year, was somewhat too curt and blunt. Without claiming
to have as good an opportunity as the President for judging in the
premises, they could not yet divest themselves of the idea that
something definite and tangible might result from an interview with
representatives from rebeldom; if nothing more, at least a distinct
understanding that no peace could be attained, without separation,
unless it were conquered.

Thoroughly familiar with the designs and purposes of the leading rebels
as Mr. Lincoln was, and well aware that any such attempt must prove
futile, he was nevertheless determined that no valid ground for censure
should be afforded by himself, in case a favorable opening presented
itself.

Accordingly, when he learned--as he did during the last week of
January, from his friend, Francis P. Blair, who had visited Richmond,
with the President’s permission--that the managers there were desirous
of sending certain persons as commissioners to learn from the United
States Government upon what terms an adjustment of difficulties
could be made, and that A. H. Stephens, of Georgia, R. M. T. Hunter,
of Virginia, and J. A. Campbell, of Alabama, had been sent through
the enemy’s lines by Davis for the purpose of a conference upon the
subject, Mr. Lincoln, not choosing that the commissioners should visit
Washington, entrusted the matter to Secretary Seward, furnishing him
with the following letter of instructions, dated Executive Mansion,
Washington, January 31st, 1865:

  “HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State:--You will proceed to
  Fortress Monroe, Virginia, there to meet and informally confer with
  Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, on the basis of my letter
  to F. P. Blair, Esq., of January 18, 1865, a copy of which you have.

  “You will make known to them that three things are indispensable,
  to wit:

  “1. The restoration of national authority throughout all the States.

  “2. No receding by the Executive of the United States, on the
  slavery question, from the position assumed thereon in the late
  annual message to Congress, and in preceding documents.

  “3. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war and the
  disbanding of all forces hostile to the Government.

  “You will inform them that all propositions of theirs not
  inconsistent with the above, will be considered and passed upon in
  a spirit of sincere liberality.

  “You will hear all they may choose to say, and report it to me.

  “You will not assume to definitely consummate any thing.

    “Yours truly,      A. LINCOLN.”

On the 2d of February, the President himself left for the point
designated, and on the morning of the 3d, attended by Mr. Seward,
received Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, on board a United
States steamer anchored in Hampton Roads.

The conference that ensued was altogether informal. There was no
attendance of Secretaries, clerks, or witnesses. Nothing was written
or read. The conversation, although earnest and free, was calm and
courteous and kind, on both sides. The Richmond party approached
the discussion rather indirectly, and at no time did they make
categorical demands or tender formal stipulations or absolute refusals;
nevertheless, during the conference, which lasted four hours, the
several points at issue between the Government and the insurgents
were distinctly raised and discussed fully, intelligently, and in an
amicable spirit. What the insurgent party seemed chiefly to favor was
a postponement of the question of separation, upon which the war was
waged, and a mutual direction of the efforts of the Government as well
as those of the insurgents, to some extraneous policy or scheme for a
season, during which passions might be expected to subside, and the
armies be reduced, and trade and intercourse between the people of both
sections be resumed.

It was suggested by them that through such postponement we might have
immediate peace, with some, not very certain, prospect of an ultimate
satisfactory adjustment of political relations between the Government
and the States, section or people engaged in conflict with it. The
suggestion, though deliberately considered, was nevertheless regarded
by the President as one of armistice or truce, and he announced that we
could agree to no cessation or suspension of hostilities except on the
basis of the disbandonment of the insurgent forces, and the restoration
of the national authority throughout all the States in the Union
collaterally, and in subordination to the proposition which was thus
announced.

The anti-slavery policy of the United States was reviewed in all its
bearings, and the President announced that he must not be expected to
depart from the positions he had heretofore assumed in his proclamation
of emancipation and other documents, as these positions were reiterated
in his annual message.

It was further declared by the President that the complete restoration
of the national authority everywhere was an indispensable condition of
any assent on our part to whatever form of peace might be proposed.
The President assured the other party that while he must adhere to
these positions he would be prepared, so far as power was lodged
with the Executive, to exercise liberality. Its power, however, is
limited by the Constitution, and when peace should be made Congress
must necessarily act in regard to appropriations of money and to the
admission of representatives from the insurrectionary States.

The Richmond party were then informed that Congress had, on the 31st
of January, adopted, by a constitutional majority, a joint resolution
submitting to the several States the proposition to abolish slavery
throughout the Union, and that there was every reason to expect that it
would soon be accepted by three-fourths of the States, so as to become
a part of the national organic law.

The conference came to an end by mutual acquiescence, without producing
an agreement of views upon the several matters discussed, or any of
them.

On the following morning the President and Secretary returned to
Washington, and shortly afterward, in compliance with a resolution to
that effect, Congress was informed in detail of all that had led to the
interview and its issue.

Thus was spiked the last gun bearing upon the terms on which the
rebels would consent to peace. Whatever might have been the impression
previously it was then well understood that to the armies in the field
then converging toward Richmond, and not to the Executive of the
nation, resort was to be had for peace upon any basis which loyal men
would indorse.

On the 17th of February, in accordance with the general custom at the
expiration of a Presidential term, the Senate was convened in active
session by the following proclamation:

  “WHEREAS, objects of interest to the United States require that the
  Senate should be convened at twelve o’clock on the fourth of March
  next, to receive and act upon such communications as may be made to
  it on the part of the Executive--

  “Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United
  States, have considered it to be my duty to issue this my
  proclamation, declaring that an extraordinary occasion requires
  the Senate of the United States to convene for the transaction of
  business, at the Capitol, in the city of Washington, on the fourth
  day of March next, at twelve o’clock at noon on that day, of which
  all who shall at that time be entitled to act as members of that
  body are hereby required to take notice.

  “Given under my hand and the seal of the United States, at
  Washington, the 17th day of February, in the year of our Lord one
  thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and of the Independence of
  the United States of America, the eighty-ninth.

    “By the President:      ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

    “WILLIAM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.”

At this time, the military situation was very interesting to every
friend of the Union, whatever might have been the feelings it created
among those who had so long been in arms against the Government.

Sherman had “come out” at Savannah, capturing it and presenting it
as a Christmas gift to the nation, after an extraordinary march from
Atlanta--which he had deprived of all power for harm--directly through
the heart of Georgia; a march as to which the rebel journalists made
ludicrous efforts to be oracular in advance, predicting all manner of
mishaps from the Georgia militia and the various “lions” in his way.

Thomas had fallen back leisurely to Nashville, forcing Hood, his
antagonist, who had supplanted Johnston on account of his fighting
qualities, to the loss of almost his entire army in a sanguinary battle
which occurred near that city, Thomas being the attacking party. With
the remnants of his discomfited force, the fighting general had fallen
back, where was not definitely known, but evidently to some secure
support.

Sherman having recuperated his army, had left Savannah and marched
into South Carolina, where, according to the beforenamed veracious
chroniclers, he was to flounder in bogs and quagmires, at the mercy
of his valorous foes. He floundered on, truly--floundered, so as to
flank Charleston, that nursery and hot-bed of treason, which had so
long insulted the land--and compel its hurried evacuation; floundered,
so as to capture and occupy Columbia, the capital of the Palmetto
State; floundered, so as to threaten Raleigh, the capital of North
Carolina; and at the time of which we write, had at last floundered to
Goldsborough, where he had effected a connection with another column,
which had pierced to that point after the capture of Wilmington, North
Carolina, the pet port of disinterested blockade-runners--a capture
rendered certain by the storming of Fort Fisher, commanding the
entrance to its harbor, in connection with which one Major-General was
made and another unmade--whether the latter result was brought about
with or without the coöperation of the commander of the naval part of
the expedition, it boots not here to inquire.

Whither Sherman would flounder next became to all rebeldom a question
of the very deepest interest. Davis having been compelled by his
Congress to assign the discarded Johnston to a command, and Lee to
the command of all the rebel armies, Johnston was dispatched to head
Sherman off, should he be insane enough to attempt to move any nearer
Richmond--a species of insanity to which, it must be confessed, he had
shown a marked tendency.

Sheridan, too, having chased Early up and out of the Shenandoah
Valley--that Early the one of whom his troops were wont to remark,
that his principal business seemed to be “to trade Confederate cannon
for Yankee whiskey”--had been raiding around Richmond in whatsoever
direction he listed, severing communications, gobbling up supplies, and
creating a general consternation.

And still the bull-dog’s teeth were firmly fastened in his victim. Not
twistings, nor squirmings, nor strugglings, nor counterbites could do
more than to defer--and that but for a short time--the inevitable.

The rebel congress, at the very last moment of its last session, had
squeezed through a bill for arming the slaves, and Davis had grimly
wished them a safe and pleasant journey to their respective homes. It
was too late, both for the slaves and the homes.

Meantime, on Saturday, March 4th--a day which opened unpropitiously, so
far as the elements were concerned, but which redeemed itself before
noontide, becoming bright and cheerful--at the hour appointed, the oath
of office was for the second time administered to Mr. Lincoln--not,
however, by the same Chief Justice, for Roger B. Taney slept with his
fathers, and in his place stood Salmon P. Chase--after which, on a
staging erected at the eastern portico of the Capitol, he read in a
clear, distinct voice, his second inaugural, occupying not more than
ten minutes in the act:

  “FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN:--At this second appearing to take the oath of
  the Presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended
  address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat
  in detail of a course to be pursued seemed very fitting and
  proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public
  declarations have constantly been called forth on every point and
  phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and
  engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be
  presented.

  “The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends,
  is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust,
  reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope
  for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. On the
  occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were
  anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all
  sought to avoid it. While the inaugural address was being delivered
  from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without
  war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it,
  without war; seeking to dissolve the Union and divide the effects
  by negotiation.

  “Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather
  than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather
  than let it perish, and the war came.

  “One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not
  distributed generally over the Union, but located in the southern
  part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful
  interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of
  the war. To strengthen, perpetuate and extend this interest was
  the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union by war,
  while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict
  the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected the
  magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither
  anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease, even before
  the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph
  and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same
  Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes his aid against
  the other. It may seem strange that any man should dare to ask a
  just God’s assistance in wringing his bread from the sweat of other
  men’s faces. But let us judge not, that we be not judged.

  “The prayer of both should not be answered. That of neither has
  been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. ‘Woe unto
  the world because of offences, for it must needs be that offences
  come, but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh.’ If we shall
  suppose that American slavery is one of these offences which, in
  the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued
  through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he
  gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due
  to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any
  departure from those Divine attributes which the believers in a
  living God always ascribe to him?

  “Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge
  of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue
  until all the wealth piled by the bondman’s two hundred and fifty
  years of unrequited toil shall be sunk and until every drop of
  blood drawn by the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the
  sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must
  be said, that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous
  altogether.

  “With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in
  the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to
  finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care
  for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his
  orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting
  peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Of this address--which was of course made the subject for the coarsest
comments of those who enjoyed nought so much as aiding the pack that
hounded Mr. Lincoln while living--an English journal, second to none
in ability and judgment, and leader of the better class of thinkers in
that country, thus spoke:

  “It is the most remarkable thing of the sort, ever pronounced by
  any President of the United States from the first day until now.
  Its Alpha and its Omega is _Almighty God_, the God of justice and
  the Father of mercies, who is working out the purposes of his love.
  It is invested with a dignity and pathos, which lift it high above
  every thing of the kind, whether in the Old World or the New.
  The whole thing puts us in mind of the best men of the English
  Commonwealth; there is, in fact, much of the old prophet about it.”

On the 16th of March, in accordance with an Act of Congress, grace was
extended to deserters by the following proclamation:

  “WHEREAS, The twenty-first section of the act of Congress,
  approved on the 3d instant, entitled ‘an act to amend the several
  acts heretofore passed to provide for the enrolling and calling
  out of the National forces, and for other purposes,’ requires
  that, in addition to the other lawful penalties of the crime
  of desertion from the military or naval service, ‘all persons
  who have deserted the military or naval service of the United
  States, who shall not return to the said service or report
  themselves to a provost-marshal within sixty days after the
  proclamation hereinafter mentioned, shall be deemed and taken
  to have voluntarily relinquished and forfeited their rights to
  become citizens; and such deserters shall be forever incapable of
  holding any office of trust or profit under the United States,
  or of exercising any rights of citizens thereof; and all persons
  who shall hereafter desert the military or naval service, and all
  persons who, being duly enrolled, shall depart the jurisdiction
  of the district in which he is enrolled, or go beyond the limits
  of the United States, with the intent to avoid any draft into the
  military or naval service duly ordered, shall be liable to the
  penalties of this section. And the President is hereby authorized
  and required forthwith, on the passage of this act, to issue
  his proclamation setting forth the provisions of this section,
  in which proclamation the President is requested to notify all
  deserters returning within sixty days, as aforesaid, that they
  shall be pardoned on condition of returning to their regiments and
  companies, or to such other organizations as they may be assigned
  to, unless they shall have served for a period of time, equal to
  their original term of enlistment’--

  “Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United
  States, do issue this my proclamation, as required by said act,
  ordering and requiring all deserters to return to their proper
  posts, and I do hereby notify them that all deserters who shall
  within sixty days from the date of this proclamation, viz.: on or
  before the tenth day of May, 1865, return to service, or report
  themselves to a provost-marshal, shall be pardoned, on condition
  that they return to their regiments and companies or such other
  organizations as they may be assigned to, and serve the remainder
  of their original terms of enlistment, and, in addition thereto, a
  period equal to the time lost by desertion.

  “In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the
  seal of the United States to be affixed.

  “Done at the city of Washington, this eleventh day of March, in the
  year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and of
  the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.

    “By the President:      ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

    “W. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.”

CHAPTER XXIV.

IN RICHMOND.

  President Visits City Point--Lee’s Failure--Grant’s Movement--
  Abraham Lincoln in Richmond--Lee’s Surrender--President’s
  Impromptu Speech--Speech on Reconstruction--Proclamation Closing
  Certain Ports--Proclamation Relative to Maritime Rights--
  Supplementary Proclamation--Orders from the War Department--The
  Traitor President.

On the afternoon of the 23d of March, 1865, the President, accompanied
by Mrs. Lincoln, his youngest son, and a few invited guests, left
Washington for an excursion to City Point. The trip was taken under
advice of his medical attendant, his health having become somewhat
impaired by his unremitting attention to the pressing duties of his
office.

A desperate attempt had been made by Lee to break through the lines
surrounding him. Assaulting our right centre, he had been repulsed with
a severe loss.

Shortly after, Grant determined that the moment had arrived for his
advance. A movement was ordered along the entire line--Petersburg
fell--Richmond was abandoned in hot haste--and Lee’s routed army
“driven to the wall.”

During the progress of the movement, the President forwarded, from time
to time, the particulars--pressed on to the evacuated Capital--entered
it, conspicuous amid the sweeping mass of men, women, and children,
black, white, and yellow, running, shouting, dancing, swinging
their caps, bonnets, and handkerchiefs--passed on to the deserted
mansion of the rebel chief, cheer upon cheer going up from the
excited multitude--there held a levee--left the same evening for City
Point--and soon afterward returned to Washington.

Lee, hemmed in on every side, soon after surrendered; the terms of
capitulation, which were dictated by the magnanimous President, and
dated Appomattox Court House, April ninth, 1865, being as follows:

  “GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE, ARMY C. S.:--In accordance with the
  substance of my letter to you of the 8th inst., I propose to
  receive the surrender of the army of Northern Virginia on the
  following terms, to wit: Rolls of all the officers and men to be
  made in duplicate, one copy to be given to an officer designated
  by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as
  you may designate, the officers to give their individual paroles
  not to take up arms against the Government of the United States
  until properly exchanged, and each company or regimental commander
  to sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms,
  artillery, and public property to be parked and stacked, and turned
  over to the officers appointed by me to receive them. This will not
  embrace the side arms of the officers, nor their private horses or
  baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return
  to their homes, not to be disturbed by United States authority so
  long as they observe their parole and the laws in force where they
  may reside.

    “Very respectfully,
    “U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant-General.”

Johnston was next in order; and toward him Sherman was in motion.

The night following the President’s arrival in Washington, the workmen
of the Navy-yard formed in procession, marched to the White House, in
front of which thousands were assembled, bands playing, and the entire
throng alive with excitement.

Repeated calls having been made for him, he appeared at the window, on
the entrance door, calm amid the tumult, and was greeted with cheers
and waving of hats.

Comparative silence having been secured, he said:

  “MY FRIENDS:--I am very greatly rejoiced that an occasion has
  occurred so pleasurable that the people can’t restrain themselves.
  I suppose that arrangements are being made for some sort of formal
  demonstration--perhaps this evening or to-morrow night. If there
  should be such a demonstration, I, of course, will have to respond
  to it; and I will have nothing to say if you dribble it out of me.

  “I see you have a band. I propose now closing up by requesting you
  to play a certain piece of music, or a tune--I thought ‘Dixie’ one
  of the best tunes I ever heard.

  “I had heard that our adversaries over the way had attempted to
  appropriate it. I insisted yesterday we had fairly captured it! I
  presented the question to the Attorney General, and he gave it as
  his opinion that it is our lawful prize. I ask the band to give us
  a good turn upon it.”

The band accordingly played “Dixie,” with extraordinary vigor, when
“three cheers and a tiger” were given, followed by the tune of “Yankee
Doodle.” The President then proposed three rousing cheers for Grant and
all under his command--and next, three cheers for the Navy and all its
forces.

The President then retired, amid cheers, the tune of “Hail Columbia,”
and the firing of cannon.

On the night of the eleventh of April, the Executive Departments,
including the President’s House, as also many places of business and
private residences, were illuminated, and adorned with transparencies
and national flags; bon-fires blazed in various parts of the city; and
rockets were fired.

In response to the unanimous call of the thousands of both sexes who
surrounded the Executive Mansion, Mr. Lincoln appeared at an upper
window, and when the cheering with which he was greeted had subsided,
spoke as follows in his last public speech:

  “FELLOW-CITIZENS:--We meet this evening, not in sorrow, but in
  gladness of heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond,
  and the surrender of the principal insurgent army, give hope of
  a righteous and speedy peace, whose joyous expression cannot be
  restrained.

  “In the midst of this, however, He, from whom all blessings flow,
  must not be forgotten. A call for a National Thanksgiving is being
  prepared, and will be duly promulgated.

  “Nor must those, whose harder part gives us the cause of rejoicing,
  be overlooked--and their honors must not be parcelled out. With
  others I myself was near the front, and had the high pleasure of
  transmitting much of the good news to you, but no part of the
  honor, or praise, or execution, is mine. To General Grant, his
  skilful officers and brave men, all belongs. The gallant Navy stood
  ready, but was not in reach to take an active part. By these recent
  successes the reinauguration of the national authority, and the
  reconstruction, which has had a large share of thought from the
  first, is pressed much more closely upon our attention.

  “It is fraught with great difficulty. Unlike the case of a war
  between independent nations, there is no authorized organ for us
  to treat with. No one man has authority to give up the rebellion
  for any other man. We simply must begin with and mould from
  disorganized and discordant elements. Nor is it a small additional
  embarrassment, that we the loyal people, differ amongst ourselves
  as to the mode, manner, and measure of reconstruction.

  “As a general rule, I abstain from reading the reports of attacks
  upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot
  properly offer an answer; for, spite of this precaution, however,
  it comes to my knowledge that I am much censured from some
  supposed agency in setting up and seeking to sustain the new State
  Government of Louisiana. In this I have done just so much and no
  more than the public knows. In the annual Message of December,
  1863, and the accompanying Proclamation, I presented a plan of
  reconstruction, as the phrase goes, which I promised, if adopted by
  any State, should be acceptable to and sustained by the Executive
  Government of the nation.

  “I distinctly stated that this was not the only plan which might
  possibly be acceptable; and I also distinctly protested that the
  Executive claimed no right to say when or whether members should be
  admitted to seats in Congress from such States. This plan was in
  advance submitted to the then Cabinet, and as distinctly approved
  by every member of it.

  “One of them suggested that I should then, and in that connection,
  apply the Emancipation Proclamation to the theretofore excepted
  parts of Virginia and Louisiana; that I should drop the suggestion
  about apprenticeship for freed people; and that I should omit
  the protest against my own power in regard to the admission of
  members of Congress; but even he approved every part and parcel
  of the plan which has since been employed or touched by the
  action of Louisiana. The new Constitution of Louisiana, declaring
  emancipation for the whole State, particularly applies the
  proclamation to the part previously excepted. It does not adopt
  apprenticeship for freed people, and it is silent--as it could not
  well be otherwise--about the admission of members to Congress; so
  that, as it applies to Louisiana, every member of the Cabinet fully
  approved the plan.

  “The message went to Congress, and I received many commendations
  of the plan, written and verbal, and not a single objection to
  it by any professed emancipationist came to my knowledge until
  after the news reached Washington that the people of Louisiana had
  begun to move in accordance with it. From about July, 1862, I had
  corresponded with different persons supposed to be interested
  in seeking a reconstruction of a State Government for Louisiana.
  When the message of 1863, with the plan before mentioned, reached
  New Orleans, and General Banks wrote me that he was confident
  the people, with his military coöperation, would reconstruct
  substantially on that plan, I wrote him and some of them to try it.
  They tried it, and the result is known.

  “Such only has been my agency in getting up the Louisiana
  Government. As to sustaining it, my promise is out, as before
  stated; but, as bad promises are better broken than kept, I shall
  treat this as a bad promise, and break it whenever I shall be
  convinced that keeping it is adverse to the public interest. But I
  have not yet been so convinced.

  “I have been shown a letter on this subject, supposed to be an
  able one, in which the writer expresses regret that my mind has
  not seemed to be definitely fixed on the question whether the
  seceded States, so called, are in the Union or out of it. It would,
  perhaps, add astonishment to his regret were he to learn that
  since I have found professed Union men endeavoring to make that
  a question, I have purposely forborne any public expression upon
  it, as it appears to me that question has not been, nor yet is, a
  practically material one, and that any discussion of it while it
  thus remains practically material could have no effect other than
  the mischievous one of dividing our friends.

  “As yet, whatever it may become hereafter, that question is bad,
  as the basis of a controversy, and good for nothing at all, a
  merely pernicious abstraction. We all agree that the seceded
  States, so-called, are out of their proper practical relation with
  the Union, and that the sole object of the Government, civil and
  military, in regard to those States, is to again get them into
  that proper practical relation. I believe it is not only possible,
  but in fact easier to do this without deciding or even considering
  whether these States have ever been out of the Union, than with it;
  finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial
  whether they had ever been abroad.

  “Let us all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the
  proper practical relations between these States and the Union, and
  each forever after, innocently indulge his own opinion whether in
  doing the acts he brought the States from without into the Union,
  or only gave them proper assistance, they never having been out of
  it.

  “The amount of constituency, so to speak, on which the new
  Louisiana Government rests, would be more satisfactory to all if
  it contained 50,000, 30,000, or even 20,000, instead of only about
  12,000, as it does.

  “It is also unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is
  not given to the colored men. I would myself prefer that it were
  conferred on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our
  cause as soldiers. Still the question is not whether the Louisiana
  Government, as it stands, is quite all that is desirable. The
  question is, will it be wiser to take it as it is, and help to
  improve it, or to reject and disperse it? Can Louisiana be brought
  into proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining
  or by discarding her new State Government?

  “Some twelve thousand voters in the heretofore slave State of
  Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the Union, assumed to be the
  rightful political power of the State, held elections, organized
  a State government, adopted a free State constitution, giving
  the benefit of public schools equally to black and white, and
  empowering the Legislature to confer the elective franchise upon
  the colored man. Their Legislature has already voted to ratify the
  Constitutional amendment recently passed by Congress, abolishing
  slavery throughout the Nation. These twelve thousand persons are
  thus fully committed to the Union, and to perpetual freedom in
  the State--committed to the very beings and nearly all the things
  the Nation wants--and they ask the Nation’s recognition and its
  assistance to make good their committal. Now, if we reject and
  spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and disperse them. We,
  in fact, say to the white man, ‘You are worthless, or worse; we
  will neither help you nor be helped by you.’ To the blacks we say,
  ‘This cup of liberty which your old masters there hold to your lips
  we will dash from you, and leave you to the chances of gathering
  the spilled and scattered contents in some vague and undefined
  way when, where, and how.’ If this course, by discouraging and
  paralyzing both white and black, has any tendency to bring
  Louisiana into proper practical relations with the Union, I have so
  far been unable to perceive it. If, on the contrary, we recognize
  and sustain the new Government of Louisiana, the converse of all
  this is made true.

  “We encourage the hearts and nerve the arms of the twelve thousand
  to adhere to their work, and argue for it, and proselyte for it,
  and fight for it, and feed it, and grow it, and ripen it, to a
  complete success. The colored man, too, in seeing all united for
  him, is inspired with vigilance, and energy, and daring to the same
  end. Grant that he desires the elective franchise, will he not
  attain it sooner by saving the already advanced steps toward it
  than by running backward over them? Concede that the new Government
  of Louisiana is only what it should be, as the egg is to the fowl,
  we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg, than by smashing
  it. [Laughter.]

  “Again, if we reject Louisiana, we also reject our vote in favor of
  the proposed amendment to the National Constitution. To meet this
  proposition, it has been argued that no more than three-fourths of
  those States which have not attempted secession are necessary to
  validly ratify the amendment. I do not commit myself against this,
  further than to say that such a ratification would be questionable,
  and sure to be persistently questioned, while a ratification
  by three-fourths of all the States would be unquestioned and
  unquestionable.

  “I repeat the question. Can Louisiana be brought into proper
  practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by
  discarding her new State Government? What has been said of
  Louisiana will apply severally to other States; yet so great
  peculiarities pertain to each State, and such important and
  sudden changes occur in the same State, and withal so new and
  unprecedented is the whole case, that no exclusive and inflexible
  plan can safely be prescribed. As to details and collaterals,
  such an exclusive and inflexible plan would surely become a new
  entanglement. Important principles may and must be inflexible.

  “In the present situation, as the phrase goes, it may be my duty
  to make some new announcement to the people of the South. I am
  considering, and shall not fail to act when satisfied that action
  will be proper.”

On the 11th of April, also, appeared the following proclamation:

  “WHEREAS, By my proclamation of the 19th and 27th days of April,
  1861, the ports of the United States of Virginia, North Carolina,
  South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana,
  and Texas were declared to be subject to blockade, but whereas the
  said blockade has, in consequence of actual military occupation
  by this Government, since then been conditionally set aside or
  released in respect to the ports of Norfolk and Alexandria, in the
  State of Virginia, Beaufort, in the State of North Carolina, Port
  Royal, in the State of South Carolina, Pensacola and Fernandina, in
  the State of Florida, and New Orleans, in the State of Louisiana;
  and whereas, by the 4th section of the act of Congress approved on
  the 13th of July, 1861, entitled ‘an act further to provide for
  the collection of duties on imports, and for other purposes,’ the
  President, for the reasons therein set forth, is authorized to
  close certain ports of entry.

  “Now, therefore, be it known that I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of
  the United States, do hereby proclaim that the ports of Richmond,
  Tappahannock, Cherry Stone, Yorktown, and Petersburg, in Virginia;
  of Camden, Elizabeth City, Edenton, Plymouth, Washington, Newbern,
  Ocracoke, and Wilmington, in North Carolina; of Charleston,
  Georgetown, and Beaufort, in South Carolina; of Savannah, St.
  Marys, Brunswick, and Darien, in Georgia; of Mobile, in Alabama; of
  Pearl river, Shieldsboro’, Natchez, and Vicksburg, in Mississippi;
  of St. Augustine, Key West, St. Marks, Port Leon, St. Johns,
  Jacksonville, and Apalachicola, in Florida; of Teche and Franklin,
  in Louisiana; of Galveston, La Salle, Brazos de Santiago, Point
  Isabel, and Brownsville, in Texas, are hereby closed, and all
  rights of importation, warehousing, and other privileges shall, in
  respect to the ports aforesaid, cease until they shall again have
  been opened by order of the President; and if, while said ports are
  so closed, any ship or vessel from beyond the United States, or
  having on board any articles subject to duties, shall attempt to
  enter any such port, the same, together with its tackle, apparel,
  furniture, and cargo, shall be forfeited to the United States.

  “In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal
  of the United States to be affixed.

  “Done at the City of Washington this eleventh day of April, in the
  year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and of
  the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-ninth.

    “Abraham Lincoln.

    “William H. Seward, Secretary of State.”

And on the same day the following:

  “WHEREAS, for some time past vessels-of-war of the United
  States have been refused in certain foreign ports privileges and
  immunities to which they were entitled by treaty, public law,
  or the comity of nations, at the same time that vessels-of-war
  of the country wherein the said privileges and immunities have
  been withheld have enjoyed them fully and uninterruptedly in
  ports of the United States, which condition of things has not
  always been forcibly resisted by the United States, although,
  on the other hand, they have not at any time failed to protest
  against and declare their dissatisfaction with the same. In the
  view of the United States no condition any longer exists which
  can be claimed to justify the denial to them by any one of said
  nations of customary naval rights, such as has heretofore been so
  unnecessarily persisted in--

  “Now, therefore, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United
  States, do hereby make known that if after a reasonable time
  shall have elapsed for intelligence of this proclamation to have
  reached any foreign country in whose ports the said privileges
  and immunities shall have been refused as aforesaid, they shall
  continue to be so refused, then and thenceforth the same privileges
  and immunities shall be refused to the vessels-of-war of that
  country in the ports of the United States; and this refusal shall
  continue until war-vessels of the United States shall have been
  placed upon an entire equality in the foreign ports aforesaid with
  vessels of other countries. _The United States, whatever claim or
  pretence may have existed heretofore, are now at least entitled to
  claim and concede an entire and friendly equality of rights and
  hospitalities with all maritime nations._

  “In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal
  of the United States to be affixed.

  “Done at the city of Washington this eleventh day of April, in the
  year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and
  of the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.

    “By the President:      ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

    “WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.”

And, on the twelfth April, the following supplementary proclamation:

  “WHEREAS, By my proclamation of this date the port of Key West, in
  the State of Florida, was inadvertently included among those which
  are not open to commerce:

  “Now, therefore, be it known that I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of
  the United States, do hereby declare and make known that the said
  port of Key West is and shall remain open to foreign and domestic
  commerce, upon the same conditions by which that commerce has
  hitherto been governed.

  “In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal
  of the United States to be affixed.

  “Done at the City of Washington this eleventh day of April, in the
  year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and of
  the Independence of the United States of America, the eighty-ninth.

    “By the President:      ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

    “WM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.”

The light in which the administration regarded the position of affairs
can best be judged from the following official bulletin from the War
Department, bearing date April thirteenth, 1865:

  “This Department, after mature consideration and consultation with
  the Lieutenant-General upon the results of the recent campaigns,
  has come to the following determination, which will be carried into
  effect by appropriate orders, to be immediately issued:

  “_First._ To stop all drafting and recruiting in the loyal States.

  “_Second._ To curtail purchases for arms, ammunition,
  quartermaster’s and commissary supplies, and reduce the expenses of
  the military establishment and its several branches.

  “_Third._ To reduce the number of general and staff officers to the
  actual necessities of the service.

  “_Fourth._ To remove all military restrictions upon trade and
  commerce, so far as may be consistent with the public safety.

  “As soon as these measures can be put in operation, it will be made
  known by public orders.

    “EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.”

The Traitor President, who, on the fifth of April, had issued a
proclamation to the effect that he should hold on to Virginia--where
was he at this time?

CHAPTER XXV.

THE LAST ACT.

  Interview with Mr. Colfax--Cabinet Meeting--Incident--Evening
  Conversation--Possibility of Assassination--Leaves for the
  Theatre--In the Theatre--Precautions for the Murder--The Pistol
  Shot--Escape of the Assassin--Death of the President--Pledges
  Redeemed--Situation of the Country--Effect of the Murder--
  Obsequies at Washington--Borne Home--Grief of the People--At
  Rest.

On the morning of Friday, April fourteenth, 1865, after an interesting
conversation with his eldest son, Robert, a captain on General Grant’s
staff, relative to the surrender of Lee, with the details of which the
son was familiar, the President, hearing that Schuyler Colfax, Speaker
of the House of Representatives, was in the Executive Mansion, invited
the latter to a chat in the reception-room, and during the following
hour the talk turned upon his future policy toward the rebellion--a
matter which he was about to submit to his Cabinet.

After an interview with John P. Hale, then recently appointed Minister
to Spain, as well as with several Senators and Representatives, a
Cabinet meeting was held, at eleven o’clock, General Grant being
present, which proved to be one of the most satisfactory and important
consultations held since his first inauguration. The future policy
of the Administration was harmoniously and unanimously agreed upon,
and upon the adjournment of the meeting the Secretary of War remarked
that the Government was then stronger than at any period since the
commencement of the rebellion.

It was afterwards remembered that at this meeting the President turned
to General Grant and asked him if he had heard from General Sherman.
General Grant replied that he had not, but was in hourly expectation of
receiving dispatches from him, announcing the surrender of Johnston.

“Well,” said the President, “you will hear very soon now and the news
will be important.”

“Why do you think so?” said the General.

“Because,” said Mr. Lincoln, “I had a dream last night, and ever since
the war began I have invariably had the same dream before any very
important military event has occurred.” He then instanced Bull Run,
Antietam, Gettysburg, etc., and said that before each of these events
he had had the same dream, and turning to Secretary Welles, said:

“It is in your line, too, Mr. Welles. The dream is that I saw a ship
sailing very rapidly, and I am sure that it portends some important
national event.”

In the afternoon, a long and pleasant conversation was held with
eminent citizens from Illinois.

In the evening, during a talk with Messrs. Colfax and Ashman--the
latter of whom presided at the Chicago Convention, in 1860--speaking
about his trip to Richmond, when the suggestion was made that there
was much uneasiness at the North while he was at what had been the
rebel capital, for fear that some traitor might shoot him, Mr. Lincoln
reportively replied, that he would have been alarmed himself, if any
other person had been President and gone there, but that, as for
himself, he did not feel in any danger whatever.

This possibility of an assassination had been presented before to the
President’s mind, but it had not occasioned him a moment’s uneasiness.
A member of his Cabinet one day said to him, “Mr. Lincoln, you are not
sufficiently careful of yourself. There are bad men in Washington. Did
it never occur to you that there are rebels among us who are bad enough
to attempt your life?” The President stepped to a desk and drew from a
pigeon-hole a package of letters. “There,” said he, “every one of these
contains a threat to assassinate me. I might be nervous, if I were to
dwell upon the subject, but I have come to this conclusion: there are
opportunities to kill me every day of my life, if there are persons
disposed to do it. It is not possible to avoid exposure to such a fate,
and I shall not trouble myself about it.”

Upon the evening alluded to, while conversing upon a matter of business
with Mr. Ashman, he saw that the latter was surprised at a remark which
he had made, when, prompted by his well-known desire to avoid any thing
offensive, he immediately said, “You did not understand me, Ashman:
I did not mean what you inferred, and I will take it all back, and
apologize for it.” He afterward gave Mr. A. a card, admitting himself
and friend for a further conversation early in the morning.

Turning to Mr. Colfax, he said, “You are going with Mrs. Lincoln and me
to the theatre, I hope.” The President and General Grant had previously
accepted an invitation to be present that evening at Ford’s Theatre,
but the General had been obliged to leave for the North. Mr. Lincoln
did not like to entirely disappoint the audience, as the announcement
had been publicly made, and had determined to fulfil his acceptance.

Mr. Colfax, however, declining on account of other engagements, Mr.
Lincoln said to him, “Mr. Sumner has the gavel of the Confederate
Congress, which he got at Richmond to hand to the Secretary of War.
But I insisted then that he must give it to you; and you tell him for
me to hand it over.” Mr. Ashman alluded to the gavel, still in his
possession, which he had used at Chicago; and about half an hour after
the time they had intended to leave for the theatre, the President and
Mrs. Lincoln rose to depart, the former reluctant and speaking about
remaining at home a half hour longer.

At the door he stopped and said, “Colfax, do not forget to tell
the people in the mining regions, as you pass through them, what I
told you this morning about the development when peace comes, and I
will telegraph you at San Francisco.” Having shaken hands with both
gentlemen and bidden them a pleasant good-bye, the President with his
party left for the theatre.

The box occupied by them was on the second tier above the stage, at
the right of the audience, the entrance to it being by a door from the
adjoining gallery. One, who had planned Mr. Lincoln’s assassination
with extraordinary precautions against any failure, having effected
an entrance by deceiving the guard, found himself in a dark corridor,
of which the wall made an acute angle with the door. The assassin had
previously gouged a channel from the plaster and placed near by a stout
piece of board, which he next inserted between the wall and the panel
of the door.

Ingress then being rendered impossible, he next turned toward the
entrances to the President’s box, two in number, as the box by a
sliding partition could, at pleasure, be converted into two. The door
at the bottom of the passage was open; that nearer the assassin was
closed. Both had spring-locks, but their screws had been carefully
loosened so as to yield to a slight pressure, if necessary.

Resort was had to the hither door, in which a small hole had been
bored, for the purpose of securing a view of the interior of the box,
the door first described having first been fastened, and the discovery
made that the occupants had taken seats as follows: the President in
the arm-chair nearest the audience, Mrs. Lincoln next, then, after
a considerable space, a Miss Clara Harris in the corner nearest the
stage, and a Major H. R. Rathbone on a lounge along the further wall.

The play was, “Our American Cousin.” While all were intent upon its
representation, the report of a pistol first announced the presence
of the assassin, who uttered the word “Freedom!” and advanced toward
the front. The Major having discerned the murderer through the smoke,
and grappled with him, the latter dropped his pistol and aimed with a
knife at the breast of his antagonist, who caught the blow in the upper
part of his left arm, but was unable to detain the desperado, though he
immediately seized him again. The villain, however, leaped some twelve
feet down upon the open stage, tangling his spur in the draped flag
below the box and stumbling in his fall.

Recovering himself immediately, he flourished his dagger, shouted “_Sic
semper tyrannis_” and “_The South is avenged_,” retreated successfully
through the labyrinth of the theatre--perfectly familiar to him--to his
horse in waiting below. Between the deed of blood and the escape there
was not the lapse of a minute. The hour was about half-past ten. There
was but one pursuer, and he from the audience, but he was outstripped.

The meaning of the pistol-shot was soon ascertained. Mr. Lincoln had
been shot in the back of the head, behind the left ear, the ball
traversing an oblique line to the right ear. He was rendered instantly
unconscious, and never knew friends or pain again. Having been conveyed
as soon as possible to a house opposite the theatre, he expired there
the next morning, April fifteenth, 1865, at twenty-two minutes past
seven o’clock, attended by the principal members of his Cabinet and
other friends, from all of whom the heart-rending spectacle drew
copious tears of sorrow. Mrs. Lincoln and her son Robert were in an
adjoining apartment--the former bowed down with anguish, the latter
strong enough to sustain and console her. A disconsolate widow and two
sons now constituted the entire family. Soon after nine o’clock, the
body was removed to the White House under military escort.

Thus ended the earthly career of Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President
of the United States, on the threshold of his fifty-seventh year and
second Presidential term.

“_Sic semper tyrannis!_” And this the justification for the murder of a
ruler who had

    “---- borne his faculties so meek, had been
    So clear in his great office, that his virtues
    Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
    The deep damnation of his taking-off.”

“The South avenged!” And by the cold-blooded murder of the best friend
that repentant rebels ever had--of one who had long withstood the
pressing appeals of his warmest personal and political friends for less
lenity and more rigor in dealing with traitors.

It was written in the decrees of the Immutable that he should fall by
the bullet--not, indeed, on the battle-field, whose sad suggestings
he had so often, and so tenderly, lovingly heeded--but in the midst
of his family, while seeking relief from the cares of state--and by a
murderer’s hand!--the first President to meet such a fate--thenceforth
our martyr-chief!

But sorrow was tempered with mercy. He did not fall until a benignant
Providence had permitted him to enjoy a foretaste, at least, of the
blessings which he had been instrumental in conferring upon the land he
loved so well.

The pledges of his first Inaugural Address had been amply
redeemed--those pledges which so many declared impossible of
fulfilment, which not a few mocked as beyond human power to accomplish.
The power confided to him had been successfully used “to hold, occupy,
and possess the property and places belonging to the Government.” No
United States fort at the time of his fall flaunted treason in the eyes
of the land. The day of his murder the old flag had been flung to the
breeze from Sumter with ceremonies befitting the joyous occasion, by
the very hands that four years before had been compelled to lower it
to arrogant traitors; and friends of freedom for man, irrespective of
color or race, walked the streets of Charleston--a city of desolation,
a skeleton of its former self--jubilant that, since God so willed it,
in His own good time, Freedom was National and Slavery but a thing of
the past.

When he fell, the Nation, brought by the stern necessities of direful
war to the discharge of duties befitting a better manhood, passing by
all projects for an emancipation of slaves, which should be merely
gradual, not content even that such emancipation had been proclaimed
as a measure of military necessity, had spoken in favor of such an
amendment of the Constitution as should forever prohibit any claim of
property in man. Though the final consummation of that great measure
had not been reached when our President was removed, it was given him
to feel assured that the end was not distant, was even then close at
hand.

When he fell, that body of traitors which had assumed to be a
Government had fled, one scarcely knew whither, with whatever
of ill-gotten gains their greedy hands could grasp--their main
army captive, the residue of their military force on the point of
surrendering. From what had been their capital, in the mansion
appropriated to the special use of the chiefest among the conspirators,
he had been permitted to send words of greeting to the nation.

When he fell, treason throughout the land lay gasping, dying.

It needed not that dismal, dreary, mid-April day to intensify the
sorrow. As on the wings of lightning the news sped through the
land--“the President is Shot”--“is dying”--“is dead”--men knew scarcely
how to credit the tale. When the fearful certainty came home to each,
strong men bowed themselves and wept--maid and matron joined in the
plaint. With no extraneous prompting, with no impulse save that of
the heart alone, the common grief took on a common garb. Houses were
draped--the flag of our country hung pensive at half-mast--portraitures
of the loved dead were found on all.

And dreary as was the day when first the tidings swept through the
country, patriot hearts were drearier still. It was past analysis. It
was as if chaos and dread night had come again.

Meanwhile the honored dead lay in state in the country’s capitol.

On that dreamy, hazy nineteenth of April--suggesting, were it not for
the early green leaves, the fresh springing grass, the glad spring
caroling of birds, “that sweet autumnal summer which the Indian loved
so well”--on that day when sleep wooed one even in the early morn, his
obsequies were celebrated in the country’s metropolis.

And throughout the land, minute guns were fired, bells tolled, business
suspended, and the thoughtful betook themselves to prayer, if so be
that what verily seemed a curse might pass from us.

Thence the funeral _cortege_ moved to the final resting-place--the
remains of a darling son, earlier called, accompanying those of the
father--by the route the President had taken when first he had been
summoned to the chair of State. Before half of the mournful task was
done, came tidings that the assassin had been sent to his final account
by the avenger’s hand, gurgling out, as his worthless life ebbed away,
“useless! useless!”

As the sad procession wended its way, where hundreds had gathered in
’61, impelled by mere curiosity or by partisan sympathy, thousands
gathered, four years later, through affection, through reverence,
through deep, abiding sorrow.

Flowers beautified the lifeless remains--dirges were sung--the people’s
great heart broke out into sobs and sighing.

And so, home to the prairie they bore him whom, when first he was
called, the Nation knew not--whom, mid the storms and ragings of those
years of civil war, they had learned, had loved, to call father and
friend.

In the Oak Ridge Cemetery, in his own Springfield, on the fourth of
May, 1865, they laid him to rest, at the foot of a knoll, in the most
beautiful part of the ground, over which forest trees--rare denizens of
the prairie--look lovingly.

There all that is mortal of ABRAHAM LINCOLN reposes.

“The immortal?” Hail, and farewell!

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE MAN.

  Reasons for His Re-election--What was Accomplished--Leaning on
  the People--State Papers--His Tenacity of Purpose--Washington
  and Lincoln--As a Man--Favorite Poem--Autobiography--His
  Modesty--A Christian--Conclusion.

What shall be said, in summing up, of Abraham Lincoln as a statesman
and a man? That from such humble beginnings, in circumstances so
adverse, he rose to be the Chief Magistrate of one of the leading
countries of the world, would were it in any other country, be
evidence of ability of the very highest order.

Here, however, so many from similar surroundings have achieved similar
results that this fact of itself does not necessarily unfold the man
clearly and fully to us. He might have been put forward for that high
station as a skillful and accomplished politician, from whose elevation
hosts of partisans counted upon their own personal advancement and
profit. Or he might have been a successful general; or one possessing
merely negative qualities, with no salient points, all objectionable
angularities rounded off till that desirable availability, which has at
times been laid hold of for the Presidency had been reached; or, yet
again, one who had for a long time been in the front ranks of an old
and triumphant party, and, therefore, as such matters have been managed
with us, admitted to have strong claims upon such party; or, lastly,
one who, having for many years schemed and plotted and labored, in
season and out of season, for the nomination, at last achieved it.

For such Presidents have been furnished us. But he was neither. And yet
the highest point to which an American may aspire he reached. Clearly,
then, there must have been something of strength and of worth in the
man.

He was reëlected, the first President since Jackson to whom that honor
had been accorded. And thirty-two years had passed--eight Presidential
terms--since Jackson’s reëlection. He was, moreover, reëlected by a
largely increased vote.

The years covered by his administration were the stormiest in American
history, “piled high,” as he himself said, “with difficulties.” No
President was ever more severely attacked, more unsparingly denounced
than he. None more belittled than he. And yet he was triumphantly
reëlected. Why? For the same reason that first brought him before the
country.

Primarily and mainly because the mass of the people had unbounded
confidence in his honesty and devotion to principle. Though these
qualities, it is pleasant to say, have been by no means rare in our
Presidents, yet Abraham Lincoln seemed so to speak, so steeped and
saturated in them that a hold was thereby obtained upon the common
mind, the like of which no other President since Washington had
secured. The bitterest opponent of his policy was constrained, if
candid, to admit, if not the existence of these qualities, at least the
prevailing popular belief in their existence.

What shall be said of him as a statesman?

That he found the fabric of our National Government rocking from turret
to foundation stone--that he left it, after four years of strife such
as, happily, the world rarely witnesses, firmly fixed, and sure; this
should serve in some sort, as an answer.

But might not this be owing, or principally so, to the ability of the
counsellors whom he gathered about him? Beyond a doubt the meed of
praise is to be shared. Yet we should remember that few Presidents have
so uniformly acted of and for themselves in matters of state policy,
as did Mr. Lincoln. Upon many questions the opinions of his Cabinet
were sought--a Cabinet representing the various shades of thought, the
various stages of progress, through which the people, of whom they
were the exponents, were passing from year to year--after obtaining
which, he would act. But, in most instances, perhaps, he struck out for
himself, after careful, conscientious reflection, launching his policy
upon unknown seas, quietly assured that truth was with him and that he
could not be mistaken. Nor was he often.

Having to feel his way along, for the most part--groping in the
dark--he could not push on so fast and far as to leave the people out
of breath or staring far in his rear. Still, it must not be understood
that he never acted against what was plainly the popular will. The
man was not of that mould. Unquestionably in his dealings with the
two leading European powers he often acted in direct opposition to
the popular wish. Nothing would have been easier than for him to have
brought a foreign war upon the country; and in such action, for a time
at least, he would have been sustained by the mass of the people. So,
too, as to vindictive measures towards the rebels. By adopting these
he would, oftentimes, have been in harmony with the general wish
for vengeance and retaliation. In both these instances--to name no
others--he chose to act counter to the current sentiment. More politic,
with a more piercing outlook than the mass, he saw the end from the
beginning, and in the one case chose to overlook what was, to his mind,
grossly wrong, and in the other, to stand up for the general interests
of humanity through all time rather than to cater to the desire of the
hour, natural and, perhaps, pardonable though it was.

What is meant is this--that, in the complications in which the country
was involved, he invariably acted, where expediency simply and not
principle was concerned, so as to feel sure that the body of the people
were with him. If failure were to result, he would have them feel that
the responsibility for it rested as much upon them as upon him. He
earnestly endeavored to point out what he judged the better way and to
bring the people to his conviction; but, if they relucted, he waited
till they should have advanced where, or nearly where, he was. This was
generally felt, and it added largely to the confidence reposed in him.
By means of it, a general acquiescence was procured in many measures
earlier than could have been gained by any other course. We Americans
are a peculiar people in some respects. We dislike to be led by any
man. Nay, we stoutly deny that we are. We are not--when we see the
leading strings.

Mr. Lincoln’s state papers in their structure and composition were
not always what a critical scholar would have desired. Some would say
they were presented quite too often in undress. The people are not
profound critics. They could comprehend every word. They felt that
they were addressed as fellow-citizens. The ordinarily formal and
stilted official documents came from his plain pen a talk to them by
the fireside. He said, moreover, exactly what he meant and as he meant,
in his own clear cogent way, void of verbiage, homely often but always
the outgrowth of a profound intelligent conviction. And, generally,
he struck home. His were the words to which “the common pulse of man
keeps time.” How studded are his papers with lucid illustration; how
transparently honest and candid, like the man, their author!

His tenacity of purpose was marked. Signing that immortal proclamation,
which made him the Liberator of America, on the afternoon of January
1st, 1863, after hours of New Year’s hand-shaking, he said to friends
that night--“The signature looks a little tremulous, for my hand was
tired, but my resolution was firm. I told them in September, if they
did not return to their allegiance and cease murdering our soldiers,
I would strike at this pillar of their strength. And now the promise
shall be kept; and not one word of it will I ever recall.” In all the
varying scenes through which as our leader he passed, avoiding the
extremes of sudden exultation or deep depression, calm and quiet,
and resolute and determined, he kept on his course, with duty as his
guiding star, an unwarped conscience his prompter. Feeling always that
he bore his life in his hands, in the perilous position in which he was
placed, as well as he who went forth to do duty in the battle-field, he
faltered not, swerved not, compromised not, retracted not, apologized
not, but pursued his way with an inflexibility as rare as it is grand
and inspiring. Others might doubt--not he. He saw the end toward which
the nation and himself must strive. That was ever present to him, and
toward that he ever worked. His mission as President was, as he so
often and so pointedly stated, to save the Union. And he saved it.
There may be those who will contend that such a result might have been
reached by other means than those he was impelled to employ. That is
theory. He reduced his to practice. For himself, he could work only in
his own harness; and patiently, persistently, painfully he worked on
till the goal was reached.

Well has Washington been styled the Father of his Country. Yet this
arose from veneration rather than from love; for the most felt such an
impassable gulf between themselves and the patriot-hero, that to them
he appeared of quite another order of beings than themselves.

Abraham Lincoln was both Saviour and Father; for he preserved whatever
was most valuable in the old and created a new order of things
possessing an inherent dignity and importance which the old never had.
And such titles the people bestow upon him through love.

The characteristics of the man stood prominently out in the statesman.
He had not one garb as an official and another as a citizen. No
change marked his transit from the chat of the drawing-room to the
consultation of cabinet. What he was in the one situation he was in the
other. His peculiar humor was not, as those who least knew him judged,
his habitual disposition. More of melancholy and sadness centred in him
than most were aware. His favorite poem--given below for the sufficient
reason that it was his favorite--attests the vein of pensiveness which
was in him. “There is one poem,” he remarked in conversation, “that is
almost continually present with me: it comes in my mind whenever I have
relief from thought and care.”

    Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?
    Like a swift, fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud,
    A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave,
    Man passeth from life to his rest in the grave.

    The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade,
    Be scattered around and together be laid;
    And the young and the old, and the low and the high,
    Shall moulder to dust and together shall lie.

    The infant a mother attended and loved;
    The mother that infant’s affection who proved;
    The husband that mother and infant who blessed,
    Each, all, are away to their dwellings of Rest.

    The maid on whose cheek, on whose brow, in whose eye
    Shone beauty and pleasure--her triumphs are by;
    And the memory of those who loved her and praised,
    Are alike from the minds of the living erased.

    The hand of the king that the sceptre hath borne;
    The brow of the priest that the mitre hath worn;
    The eye of the sage and the heart of the brave,
    Are hidden and lost in the depth of the grave.

    The peasant whose lot was to sow and to reap;
    The herdsman, who climbed with his goats up the steep;
    The beggar, who wandered in search of his bread,
    Have faded away like the grass that we tread.

    The saint who enjoyed the communion of heaven,
    The sinner who dared to remain unforgiven,
    The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just,
    Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust.

    So the multitude goes, like the flowers or the weed
    That withers away to let others succeed;
    So the multitude comes, even those we behold,
    To repeat every tale that has often been told.

    For we are the same our fathers have been;
    We see the same sights our fathers have seen--
    We drink the same stream and view the same sun--
    And run the same course our fathers have run.

    The thoughts we are thinking our fathers would think;
    From the death we are shrinking our fathers would shrink,
    To the life we are clinging they also would cling;
    But it speeds for us all, like a bird on the wing.

    They loved, but the story we cannot unfold;
    They scorned, but the heart of the haughty is cold;
    They grieved, but no wail from their slumber will come;
    They joyed, but the tongue of their gladness is dumb.

    They died, aye! they died; and we things that are now,
    Who walk on the turf that lies over their brow,
    Who make in their dwelling a transient abode,
    Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage road.

    Yea! hope and despondency, pleasure and pain,
    We mingle together in sunshine and rain;
    And the smile and the tear, the song and the dirge,
    Still follow each other, like surge upon surge.

    ’Tis the wink of an eye, ’tis the draught of a breath;
    From the blossom of health to the paleness of death,
    From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud--
    Oh why should the spirit of mortal be proud?

No one was more modest than he. Look at the record of his life as
furnished by himself, in 1858, for Lanman’s Dictionary of Congress:

  “Born February 12, 1809, in Hardin county, Kentucky.

  “Education Defective.

  “Profession a lawyer.

  “Have been a captain of volunteers in the Black Hawk war.

  “Postmaster at a very small office.

  “Four times a member of the Illinois Legislature.

  “And was a member of the lower House of Congress.

    “Yours, etc.,
    A. LINCOLN.”

With no self-conceit, a pupil in the school of events, he was never
ashamed to confess himself a learner, and as such he grew and ripened.
Equable in his temperament, never wrathful or passionate, none need
have been his enemy, unless such an one were intended for an enemy of
the human race. Mild and forgiving, he never allowed the unmerited
abuse which was heaped upon him to affect in the least his intercourse
or dealings with its authors. His very failings leaned to mercy’s side.
There is scarcely a hamlet in the loyal States that does not contain
some witness of his clemency and lenity. One of the most touching
incidents connected with his obsequies at Washington was the placing
on his coffin of a wreath of flowers, sent from Boston by the sister
of a young man whom he had pardoned when sentenced to death for some
military offence.

Honored as a private citizen, happy in his domestic relations,
successful as a statesman, he was, moreover, an avowed Christian. He
often said that his reliance in the gloomiest hours was on his God, to
whom he appealed in prayer, although he had never become a professor
of religion. To a clergyman who asked him if he loved his Saviour, he
replied:

“When I was first inaugurated I did not love him; when God took my son
I was greatly impressed, but still I did not love him; but when I stood
upon the battle-field of Gettysburg I gave my heart to Christ, and I
can now say I do love the Saviour.”

Attention has already been called to the reverential spirit which
pervades his official papers; and this was the index of the man.
Leaving home, he invoked the prayers of his townsmen and friends;
during the excitements of his Washington life, he leaned upon a more
than human arm; against his pure moral character not even his bitterest
enemy could truthfully utter a word.

Such--imperfectly sketched, and at best but in rude outline--was
Abraham Lincoln. The manner of his death invests his name with a
tragic interest. This will be but temporary. But the more the man as
he was is known, the more completely an insight is obtained into his
true character, the more his private and public life is studied, the
more carefully his acts are weighed, the higher will he rise in the
estimation of all whose esteem is desirable. Coming years will detract
nought from him. He has passed into history. There no lover of honesty
and integrity, no admirer of firmness and resolution, no sympathizer
with conscientious conviction, no friend of man need fear to leave--

    ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

APPENDIX.

  MR. LINCOLN’S SPEECHES IN CONGRESS AND ELSEWHERE, PROCLAMATIONS,
  LETTERS, ETC., NOT INCLUDED IN THE BODY OF THE WORK.

SPEECH ON THE MEXICAN WAR.

(_In Committee of the Whole House, January 12, 1848._)

Mr. Lincoln addressed the Committee as follows:

  “MR. CHAIRMAN:--Some, if not all, of the gentlemen on the other
  side of the House, who have addressed the Committee within the
  last two days, have spoken rather complainingly, if I have
  rightly understood them, of the vote given a week or ten days
  ago, declaring that the war with Mexico was unnecessarily and
  unconstitutionally commenced by the President. I admit that such
  a vote should not be given in mere party wantonness, and that the
  one given is justly censurable, if it have no other or better
  foundation. I am one of those who joined in that vote; and did
  so under my best impression of the _truth_ of the case. How I
  got this impression, and how it may possibly be removed, I will
  now try to show. When the war began, it was my opinion that all
  those who, because of knowing too _little_, or because of knowing
  too _much_, could not conscientiously approve the conduct of the
  President (in the beginning of it), should, nevertheless, as good
  citizens and patriots, remain silent on that point, at least
  till the war should be ended. Some leading Democrats, including
  ex-President Van Buren, have taken this same view, as I understand
  them; and I adhered to it, and acted upon it, until since I
  took my seat here; and I think I should still adhere to it, were
  it not that the President and his friends will not allow it to
  be so. Besides, the continual effort of the President to argue
  every silent vote given for supplies into an indorsement of the
  justice and wisdom of his conduct; besides that singularly candid
  paragraph in his late message, in which he tells us that Congress,
  with great unanimity (only two in the Senate and fourteen in the
  House dissenting) had declared that ‘by the act of the Republic
  of Mexico a state of war exists between that Government and the
  United States;’ when the same journals that informed him of this,
  also informed him that, when that declaration stood disconnected
  from the question of supplies, sixty-seven in the House, and not
  fourteen, merely, voted against it; besides this open attempt to
  prove by telling the _truth_, what he could not prove by telling
  the _whole truth_, demanding of all who will not submit to be
  misrepresented, in justice to themselves, to speak out; besides all
  this, one of my colleagues [Mr. Richardson], at a very early day in
  the session, brought in a set of resolutions, expressly indorsing
  the original justice of the war on the part of the President.
  Upon these resolutions, when they shall be put on their passage,
  I shall be _compelled_ to vote; so that I can not be silent if I
  would. Seeing this, I went about preparing myself to give the vote
  understandingly, when it should come. I carefully examined the
  President’s messages, to ascertain what he himself had said and
  proved upon the point. The result of this examination was to make
  the impression, that, taking for true all the President states as
  facts, he falls far short of proving his justification; and that
  the President would have gone further with his proof, if it had not
  been for the small matter that the _truth_ would not permit him.
  Under the impression thus made I gave the vote before mentioned. I
  propose now to give, concisely, the process of the examination I
  made, and how I reached the conclusion I did.

  “The President, in his first message of May, 1846, declares that
  the soil was _ours_ on which hostilities were commenced by Mexico;
  and he repeats that declaration, almost in the same language, in
  each successive annual message--thus showing that he esteems that
  point a highly essential one. In the importance of that point I
  entirely agree with the President. To my judgment, it is the _very
  point_ upon which he should be justified or condemned. In his
  message of December, 1846, it seems to have occurred to him, as is
  certainly true, that title, ownership to soil, or any thing else,
  is not a simple fact, but is a conclusion following one or more
  simple facts; and that it was incumbent upon him to present the
  facts from which he concluded the soil was ours on which the first
  blood of the war was shed.

  “Accordingly, a little below the middle of page twelve, in the
  message last referred to, he enters upon that task; forming an
  issue and introducing testimony, extending the whole to a little
  below the middle of page fourteen. Now, I propose to try to show