4-M 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
of  July  with  a  paper  in  the  President's  own 
handwriting,  expressed  in  these  words : 
Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,  July  iS,  1864. 
To  wbom  it  may  concern;  Any  proposition 
which  embraces  the  restoration  of  peace,  the  integ- 
rity of  the  whole  Union,  and  the  abandonment  of 
slavery,  and  which  conies  by  and  with  an  authority 
that  can  control  the  armies  now  at  war  against  the 
United  Stales,  will  be  received  and  considered  by 
the  Executive  government  of  the  United  States,  and 
will  be  met  by  liberal  terms  on  other  substantial 
and  collateral  points,  and  the  bearer  or  bearers 
thereof  shall  have  safe  conduct  both  ways. 
Abraham  Lincoln. 
Mr.  Greeley  had  already  begun  to  have 
some  impression  of  the  unfortunate  position  in 
which  he  had  placed  himself,  and  the  reading 
of  this  straightforward  document  still  further 
nettled  and  perplexed  him.  He  proposed  to 
bring  Jewett  into  conference ;  this  Major  Hay 
declined.  He  then  refused  to  cross  the  river 
to  Clifton  unless  Major  Hay  wrould  accom- 
pany him.  and  himself  deliver  the  paper  to  the 
Confederate  emissaries.  They  therefore  went 
together  and  met  Mr.  Holcombe  in  a  private 
room  of  the  Clifton  House  (Mr.  Clay  being 
absent  for  a  day),  and  handed  him  the  Presi- 
dent's letter.  After  a  few  moments'  conversa- 
tion they  separated,  Mr.  Greeley  returning  to 
New  York  and  Major  Hay  remaining  at 
Niagara  to  receive  any  answer  that  might  be 
given  to  the  letter.  Before  taking  the  train  Mr. 
Greeley  had  an  interview  with  Jewett,  unknown 
to  Major  Hay,  in  which  he  seems  to  have  au- 
thorized Jewett  to  continue  to  act  as  his  repre- 
sentative. Jewett  lost  no  time  in  acquainting 
the  emissaries  with  this  fact,  informing  them 
of  the  departure  of  Mr.  Greeley,  of  "  his  re- 
gret at  the  sad  termination  of  the  initiatory 
steps  taken  for  peace,  in  consequence  of  the 
change  made  by  the  President  in  his  instruc- 
tions to  convey  commissioners  to  Washington 
for  negotiations,  unconditionally,  and  that  Mr. 
Greeley  would  be  pleased  to  receive  their  an- 
swer "  through  him  (Jewett).  They  replied  to 
Jewett  with  mutual  compliments,  inclosing  a 
long  letter  to  Mr.  Greeley,  arraigning  the  Presi- 
dent for  his  alleged  breach  of  faith,  which 
Jewett  promptly  communicated  to  the  news- 
papers of  the  country  without  notice  to  Major 
Hay,  informing  him  afterwards  in  a  note  that 
he  did  this  by  way  of  revenging  the  slight  of 
the  preceding  day. 
In  giving  the  letter  of  the  rebel  emissaries 
to  the  press  instead  of  sending  it  to  its  proper 
destination,  Jewett  accomplished  the  purpose 
for  which  it  was  written.  It  formed  a  not  in- 
effective document  in  a  heated  political  cam- 
paign. It  would  be  difficult  to  ascertain,  at 
this  day,  whether  Mr.  Greeley  ever  communi- 
cated to  Jewett  or  Sanders,  and  whether  they, 
in  their  constant  Sittings  to  and  fro  over  the 
Suspension  Bridge,  ever  made  known  to  Clay 
and  Holcombe  the  conditions  of  negotiation 
laid  down  by  Mr.  Lincoln  in  his  letters  of  the 
9th  and  15th  of  July.  At  all  events  they  pre- 
tended to  be  ignorant  of  any  such  conditions, 
and  assumed  that  the  President  had  sent  Mr. 
Greeley  to  invite  them  to  Washington  without 
credentials  and  without  conditions,  to  convey 
to  Richmond  his  overtures  of  peace.  They 
did  not  say  with  any  certainty  that  even  in 
that  event  his  overtures  would  have  been  ac- 
cepted, but  expressed  the  hope  that  in  case  the 
war  must  continue  there  might  "  have  been  in- 
fused into  its  conduct  something  more  of  the 
spirit  which  softens  and  partially  redeems  its 
brutalities."  They  then  went  on  to  accuse  the 
President  of  a  "  sudden  and  entire  change  of 
views,"  of  a  "rude  withdrawal  of  a  courteous 
overture,"  of  "  fresh  blasts  of  war  to  the  bitter 
end";  attributing  this  supposed  change  to 
some  "  mysteries  of  his  cabinet "  or  some 
"  caprice  of  his  imperial  will."  They  plainly 
intimated  that  while  the  South  desired  peace, 
it  would  not  accept  any  arrangement  which 
bartered  away  its  self-government ;  and  in  con- 
clusion they  called  upon  their  fellow- Confed- 
erates to  strip  from  their  "  eyes  the  last  film  of 
delusion  "  that  peace  is  possible,  and  "  if  there 
were  any  patriots  or  Christians  "  in  the  North, 
they  implored  them  "  to  recall  the  abused 
authority  and  vindicate  the  outraged  civiliza- 
tion of  their  country." 
Even  this  impudent  and  uncandid  manifesto 
did  not  convince  Mr.  Greeley  that  he  had 
committed  an  error.  On  the  contrary,  he 
adopted  the  point  of  view  of  the  rebel  emissa- 
ries, and  contended  after  his  return  to  New 
York  that  he  regarded  the  safe  conduct  given 
him  on  the  16th  of  July  as  a  waiver  by  the 
President  of  all  the  conditions  of  his  former 
letters.  Being  attacked  by  his  colleagues  of 
the  press  for  his  action  at  Niagara,  he  could 
only  defend  himself  by  implied  censure  of  the 
President,  and  the  discussion  grew  so  warm 
that  both  he  and  his  assailants  at  last  joined 
in  a  request  to  Mr.  Lincoln  to  permit  the  pub- 
lication of  the  correspondence  between  them. 
This  was  an  excellent  opportunity  for  Mr. 
Lincoln  to  vindicate  his  own  proceeding.  But 
he  rarely  looked  at  such  matters  from  the 
point  of  view  of  personal  advantage,  and  he 
feared  that  the  passionate,  almost  despairing 
appeals  of  the  most  prominent  Republican 
editor  in  the  North  for  peace  at  any  cost 
would  deepen  the  gloom  in  the  public  mind 
and  have  an  injurious  effect  upon  the  Union 
cause.  He  therefore  proposed  to  Mr.  Greeley, 
in  case  the  correspondence  should  be  pub- 
lished, to  omit  some  of  the  most  vehement
HORACE    GREELEY'S    PEACE    MISS/OX. 
phrases  of  his  letters  and  those  in  which  he 
advocated  peace  negotiations  solely  for  politi- 
cal effect;  at  the  same  time  he  invited  him  to 
come  to  Washington  and  talk  with  him  freely. 
Mr.  Greeley,  writing  on  the  8th  of  August, 
accepted  both  suggestions  in  principle,  but  he 
querulously  declined  going  to  Washington  at 
that  time,  on  the  ground  that  the  President 
was  surrounded  by  his  "  bitterest  personal  ene- 
mies," and  that  his  going  would  only  result  in 
further  mischief,  as  at  Niagara.  "  I  will  gladly 
go,"  he  continued,  "  whenever  I  feel  a  hope 
that  their  influence  has  waned."  Then,  unable 
to  restrain  himself,  he  broke  out  in  new  and 
severe  reproaches  against  the  President  for 
not  having  received  Mr.  Stephens,  for  not 
having  sent  a  deputation  to  Richmond  to  ask 
for  peace  after  Vicksburg,  for  not  having  taken 
the  Democrats  in  Congress  at  their  word,  and 
sent  "  three  of  the  biggest  of  them  as  commis- 
sioners to  see  what  kind  of  a  peace  they  could 
get."  He  referred  once  more  to  Niagara,  and 
said  magnanimously,  "  Let  the  past  go  " ;  but 
added  the  stern  admonition,  "  Do  not  let  this 
month  pass  without  an  earnest  effort  for  peace." 
He  held  out  a  hope  that  if  the  President  would 
turn  from  the  error  of  his  ways  he  would  still 
help  him  make  peace;  but  for  the  time  being, 
"  knowing  who  are  nearest  you,"  he  gave  him 
up.  The  only  meaning  this  can  have  is  simply, 
Dismiss  Seward  from  your  Cabinet  and  do  as  I 
tell  you,  and  then  perhaps  I  can  save  your 
Administration. 
The  next  day,  having  received  another  tele- 
gram from  the  President,  who,  regardless  of 
his  own  dignity,  was  still  endeavoring  to  con- 
ciliate and  convince  him,  Mr.  Greeley  wrote 
another  letter,  which  we  shall  give  more  fully 
than  the  rest,  to  show  in  what  a  dangerous 
frame  of  mind  was  the  editor  of  the  most  im- 
portant organ  of  public  opinion  in  the  North. 
He  begins  by  refusing  to  telegraph,  "  since  I 
learned  by  sad  experience  at  Niagara  that  my 
dispatches  go  to  the  War  Department  before 
reaching  you." 
I  fear  that  my  chance  for  usefulness  has  passed. 
I  know  that  nine-tenths  of  the  whole  American 
people,  North  and  South,  are  anxious  for  peace  — 
peace  on  almost  any  terms  —  and  utterly  sick  of 
human  slaughter  and  devastation.  I  know  that,  to 
the  general  eye,  it  now  seems  that  the  rebels  are 
anxious  to  negotiate  and  that  we  refuse  their  ad- 
vances. I  know  that  if  this  impression  be  not 
removed  we  shall  be  beaten  out  of  sight  next  No- 
vember. I  firmly  believe  that,  were  the  election  to 
take  place  to-morrow,  the  Democratic  majority  in 
this  State  and  Pennsylvania  would  amount  to 
100,000,  and  that  we  should  lose  Connecticut  also. 
Now  if  the  rebellion  can  be  crushed  before  Novem- 
ber it  will  do  to  go  on  ;  if  not,  we  are  rushing  to 
certain  ruin. 
What,  then,  can  I  do  in  Washington  ?  Your  trusted 
Vol.  XXXVIII.— 56. 
advisers  nearly  all  think  I  ought  to  go  to  Fort  La- 
fayette for  what  I  have  done  already.  Seward 
wanted  me  sent  there  lor  my  brief  conference  with 
M.  Mercier.  The  cry  has  steadily  been,  No 
armistice!    No  negotiation  !    No  mediate 
ing  but  surrender  at  discretion  !    I  never  heard  of 
such   fatuity  before.    There   is    nothing   like   it  in 
history.   It  must  result  in  disaster,  or  all 
is  delusive. 
Now  I  do  not  know  that  a  tolerable  peace  could 
be  had,  but  I  believe  it  might  have  been  last  month  ; 
and,  at  all  events,  I  know  that  an  honest,  sincere 
effort  for  it  would  have  done  us  immense  g 
And  I  think  no  Government  fighting  a  rebellion 
should  ever  close  its  ears  to  any  proposition  the 
rebels  may  make. 
I  beg  you,  implore  you,  to  inaugurate  or  invite 
proposals  for  peace  forthwith.  And  in  case  peace 
cannot  now  be  made  consent  to  an  armistice  for 
one  year,  each  party  to  retain  unmolested  all  it  now 
holds,  but  the  rebel  ports  to  be  opened.  Meantime 
let  a  national  convention  be  held,  and  there  will 
surely  be  no  more  war  at  all  events. 
In  a  letter  of  the  nth  of  August,  Mr. 
Greeley  closed  this  extraordinary  correspond- 
ence by  insisting  that  if  his  letters  were  pub- 
lished they  should  be  printed  entire.  This  was 
accepted  by  Mr.  Lincoln  as  a  veto  upon  their 
publication.  He  could  not  afford,  for  the  sake 
of  vindicating  his  own  action,  to  reveal  to 
the  country  the  despondency  —  one  might  al- 
most say  the  desperation  —  of  one  so  promi- 
nent in  Republican  councils  as  the  editor  of 
the  "  Tribune."  The  spectacle  of  this  veteran 
journalist,  who  was  justly  regarded  as  the  lead- 
ing controversial  writer  on  the  antislavery  side, 
ready  to  sacrifice  everything  for  peace,  and 
frantically  denouncing  the  Government  for 
refusing  to  surrender  the  contest,  would  have 
been,  in  its  effect  upon  public  opinion,  a  dis- 
aster equal  to  the  loss  of  a  great  battle.  The 
President  had  a  sincere  regard  for  Mr.  Greeley 
also,  and  was  unwilling  to  injure  him  and  his 
great  capacities  for  usefulness  by  publishing 
these  ill-considered  and  discouraging  utter- 
ances. His  magnanimity  was  hardly  appreci- 
ated. Mr.  Greeley,  in  this  letter  of  the  1 1  th 
of  August,  and  afterwards,  insisted  that  the 
President  had  in  his  letter  and  his  dispatch  of 
the  15th  of  July  changed  his  ground  from  that 
held  in  his  letter  of  the  9th,  which  ground,  he 
asserted,  was  again  shifted  in  his  paper  -  To 
whom  it  may  concern."  This  was  of  course 
wholly  without  foundation.  The  letter  of 
the  9th  authorized  Mr.  Greeley  to  bring  to 
Washington  any  one  "  professing  to  have  any 
proposition  from  Jefferson  Davis,  in  writing. 
for  peace,  embracing  the  restoration  of  the 
Union,  and  abandonment  of  slavery "  :  the 
letter  of  the  15th  repeats  the  offer  contained  in 
that  of  the  9th,  saying,  "  Show  that  and  this 
to  them,  and  if  they  will  come  on  the   terms
426 
X/ZS'S   GARDEN. 
stated  in  former,  bring  them."  The  next  day 
Major  Hay  gave  Mr.  Greeley  a  formal  safe 
conduct  for  himself  and  party,  and  neither 
o\~  them  thought  of  it  as  nullifying  the  Presi- 
dent's letters.  Indeed,  Mr.  Greeley's  sole  pre- 
posterous justification  for  his  claim  that  his 
safe  conduct  superseded  the  President's  in- 
structions was  that  Major  Hay  did  not  say  that 
it  did  not. 
It  was  characteristic  of  Mr.  Lincoln  that, 
seeing  the  temper  in  which  Mr.  Greeley  re- 
garded the  transaction,  he  dropped  the  matter 
and  submitted  in  silence  to  the  misrepresenta- 
tions to  which  he  was  subjected  by  reason  of 
it.  The  correspondence  preceding  the  Niagara 
conference  was  not  published  until  after  the 
President's  death;  that  subsequent  to  it  sees 
the  light  for  the  first  time  in  these  pages.  The 
public,  having  nothing  of  the  record  except  the 
impudent  manifesto  of  Clay  andHolcombe,  the 
foolish  chatter  of  Jewett,  and  such  half-state- 
ments as  Mr.  Greeley  chose  to  make  in  answer 
to  the  assaults  of  his  confreres  of  the  press, 
judged  Mr.  Lincoln  unjustly.    Some  thought 
he  erred  in  giving  any  hearing  to  the  rebels ; 
some  criticized  his  choice  of  a  commissioner; 
and  the  opposition  naturally  made  the  most 
of  his  conditions  of  negotiation,  and  accused 
him  of  embarking  in  a  war  of  extermination  in 
the  interest  of  the  negro.1  So  that  this  well- 
meant  effort  of  the  President  to  ascertain  what 
were  the  possibilities  of  peace  through  negoti- 
ation, or,  failing  that,  to  convince  the  represen- 
tative of  a  large  body  of  Republicans  of  his 
willingness  to  do  all  he  could  in  that  direction, 
resulted  only  in  putting  a  keener  edge  upon 
the  criticisms  of  his  supporters,  and  in  arming 
his  adversaries  with  a  weapon  which  they  used, 
after  their  manner,  among  the  rebels  of  the 
border  States  and  their  sympathizers  in  the 
North.  Nevertheless,  surveying  the  whole 
transaction  after  the  lapse  of  twenty-five  years, 
it  is  not  easy  to  see  how  any  act  of  his  in  re- 
lation to  it  was  lacking  in  wisdom,  or  how  it 
could  have  been  changed  for  the  better.  Cer- 
tainly every  step  of  the  proceeding  was  marked 
with  his  usual  unselfish  sincerity  and  magna- 
nimity to  friend  and  to  foe. 
MONG 
thousand 
MOJN|/  a 
students  in  a  univer- 
sity town  there  will 
always  be  two  or 
three  in  whom  science 
and  poetry  hold  each 
other  at  a  deadlock. 
The  headquarters  for 
these  few  was,  in  my 
time,  the  delightful  room  of 
Edward  Tenniman  on  the 
spot  where  the  new  Law 
School  now  stands.  He  himself  was  the  high 
priest  of  this  double  altar,  the  professor  of 
these  incompatible  elective  studies.  The  room 
was  in  an  old  colonial  house  of  the  humbler 
description,  the  ceiling  wras  low  with  a  cross- 
timber,  the  walls  were  wainscoted,  and  there 
was  a  large,  open  fireplace.  The  arrangements 
of  the  room  followed  half  unconsciously  the 
double  bent  of  the  owner's  mind.  All  one  side 
was  devoted  to  serve  botanical  science:  tin 
s,  specimens,  herbaria,  microscopes,  and  a 
5  filled  with  Latin  and  German  botanical 
works.  The  middle  of  the  room  was,  as  it 
were,  transitional :  there  was  a  desk  with  an 
1  On  the  morning  that  the  letter  of  the  rebel  emissa- 
ries was  printed  Major  Hay,  returning  to  Washington, 
heard  this  colloquy  between  two  draymen  on  a  Jersey 
City  ferry-boat :  "  Have  you  heard  the  news  ?  "  "  No; 
what  is  it  ?  "  "  Old  Abe  and  Jeff.  Davis  have  been  try- 
ing to  make  peace."  "  How  did  they  make  out?  "  "Old 
^Eschylus  forever  open,  and  a  great  copy  of 
Liddell  and  Scott's  lexicon,  then  a  novelty. 
On  the  other  side  one  passed  into  high  philos- 
ophy and  dreamland:  a  portrait  of  Coleridge, 
his  framed  autograph,  a  picture  of  his  study, 
and  a  whole  library  of  mystical  philosophy, 
including,  I  remember,  the  folio  edition  of 
Jacob  Behmen  in  five  volumes,  over  whose 
symbolic  plates  we  used  to  pore.  With  what 
delight  after  a  rather  stiff  lesson  in  botany  — 
for  he  took  a  few  of  us  as  private  pupils — did 
we  turn  to  the  other  side  of  the  room,  when 
Tenniman  would  unfold  for  us  Behmen's 
"Aurora,  or  Day-Spring,"  and,  better  yet, 
the  "  Signatura  Rerum,  or  the  signature  of 
all  things,  showing  the  Sign  and  Signification 
of  the  several  Forms  and  Shapes  in  the  Cre- 
ation ;  and  what  the  Beginning,  Ruin,  and 
Cure  of  every  Thing  is,  it  proceeds  out  of 
Eternity  into  Time,  and  again  out  of  time  into 
Eternity,  and  comprehends  all  Mysteries.  Writ- 
ten in  High  Dutch,  1622,  by  Jacob  Behmen, 
alias  Teutonicus  Phylosophus."  No  doubt 
this  side  of  the  room  was  very  unscientific,  in 
the  modern  sense,  but  it  was  certainly  refresh- 
ing after  an  hour  or  two  at  the  microscope.    It 
Abe,  he  says,  '  Let  the  niggers  go  free,  and  we  '11  stop 
fighting.'  Jeff.,  he  says,  '  I  '11  let  them  be  free  that  's 
free  now,  and  the  rest  stay  as  they  are.'  Old  Abe,  he 
says, '  No,  they  got  to  be  all  free  ' ;  and  so  they  broke  up 
on  that. "  These  draymen  were  not  the  only  citizens  who 
gave  this  brief  and  dramatic  form  to  the  negotiations.
ACROSS   THE   FIELDS    TO  ANNE, 
diers;  but  at  some  of  the  irksome  tasks,  like 
standing  sentry,  they  do  not  come  out  strong. 
They  are  not  often  used  for  that  purpose,  how- 
ever, it  being  found  that  Indians  do  not  ap- 
preciate military  forms  and  ceremonies. 
Fe    Railroad.    In  the    far   distance   the  train 
came  rushing  up  the  track,  and  as  it  BtOj 
I  boarded  it   As  I  settled  bock  in  the 
cushions  of  the  sleeping-car  I  looked  ;•- 
dirty  clothes  and  did  not  blame  the  negro  por 
Having  seen  all  that  I  desired,  I   procured    ter  for  regarding  me  with   the  haughty  spirit 
passage  in  the  stage  to  a  station  on  the  Santa    of  his  class. 
Frederic  Remin  i>>n. 
SOMETHING    WRONG. 
OLD,  old  Earth  !  what  have  you  to  do 
With  a  June  in  your  heart  ever  fresh  and  new  ? 
The  poets  sing,  as  of  very  truth, 
That  June  dwells  alone  in  the  heart  of  youth, 
And  here  you  are  in  your  eons,  Earth, 
With  as  sweet  a  June  as  you  had  at  birth. 
And  God !  He  is  ages  and  ages  older! 
And  the  love  of  age  is  paler,  colder  — 
The  poets  sing,  as  of  very  truth  — 
Than  the  love  that  springs  in  the  heart  of  youth ; 
So  he  cannot  love,  if  the  songs  run  true, 
As  he  did  when  he  shaped  and  fashioned  you, 
Yet  here  you  are,  with  your  June  as  fair 
As  the  first  that  gladdened  our  parent  pair ! 
Ah !  there  's  something  wrong  with  the  poets'  song, 
Or  the  hearts  that  to  God  and  his  earth  belong. 
Julia  G.  Skin  lie, 
ACROSS    THE    FIELDS    TO    ANNE. 
From  Stratford-on-Avon  a  lane  runs  westward  through  the  fields  a  mile  to  the  little  village  of  Shottery, 
in  which  is  the  cottage  of  Anne  Hathaway,  Shakspere's  sweetheart  and  wife. 
HOW  often  in  the  summer- tide, 
His  graver  business  set  aside, 
Has  stripling  Will,  the  thoughtful-eyed, 
As  to  the  pipe  of  Pan 
Stepped  blithesomely  with  lover's  pride 
Across  the  fields  to  Anne ! 
It  must  have  been  a  merry  mile, 
This  summer  stroll  by  hedge  and  stile, 
With  sweet  foreknowledge  all  the  while 
How  sure  the  pathway  ran 
To  dear  delights  of  kiss  and  smile, 
Across  the  fields  to  Anne. 
The  silly  sheep  that  graze  to-day, 
I  wot,  they  let  him  go  his  way, 
Nor  once  looked  up,  as  who  should  say 
"  It  is  a  seemly  man." 
For  many  lads  went  wooing  aye 
Across  the  fields  to  Anne. 
The  oaks,  they  have  a  wiser  look  ; 
Mayhap  they  whispered  to  the  brook : 
"  The  world  by  him  shall  yet  be  shook, 
It  is  in  nature's  plan  ; 
Though  now  he  fleets  like  any  rook 
Across  the  fields  to  Anne." 
And  I  am  sure,  that  on  some  hour 
Coquetting  soft  'twixt  sun  and  shower. 
He  stooped  and  broke  a  daisy-ilower 
With  heart  of  tiny  span. 
And  bore  it  as  a  lover's  dower 
Across  the  fields  to  Anne. 
While  from  her  cottage  garden-bed 
She  plucked  a  jasmine's  goodlihede, 
To  scent  his  jerkin's  brown  instead  : 
Now  since  that  love  began. 
What  luckier  swain  than  he  who  sped 
Across  the  fields  to  Anne  ? 
The  winding  path  whereon  I  pace, 
The  hedgerows  green,  the  summer's  grace. 
Are  still  before  me  face  to  face  ; 
Methinks  I  almost  can 
Turn  poet  and  join  the  singing  race 
Across  the  fields  to  Anne  ! 
Vol.  XXXVIIL— 71. 
Richard  E.  Burton,
ABRAHAM     LINCOLN:     A     HISTORY.1 
THE     CHICAGO     SURRENDER  — CONSPIRACIES    IN    THE     NORTH 
LINCOLN    AND    THE     CHURCHES. 
BY    JOHN    G.    NICOLAY    AND    JOHN    HAY,    PRIVATE    SECRETARIES    TO    THE    PRESIDENT. 
to  attacks  upon  the  Administration ;  and  the 
political  fusillade  continued  with  great  energy 
through  the  summer  months.  The  Republic- 
ans were  everywhere  on  the  defensive,  having 
no  objective  point  of  attack  in  the  opposite 
lines.  The  rebel  emissaries  in  Canada,  being 
in  thorough  concert  with  the  leading  peace 
men  of  the  North,  redoubled  their  efforts  to 
disturb  the  public  tranquillity,  and  not  with- 
out success.    Mr.  Davis  says  of  this  period : 
Political  developments  at  the  North  favored  the 
adoption  of  some  action  that  might  influence  pop- 
ular sentiment  in  the  hostile  section.  The  aspect 
of  the  peace  party  was  quite  encouraging,  and  it 
seemed  that  the  real  issue  to  be  decided  in  the  Pres- 
idential election  in  that  year  was  the  continuance 
or  cessation  of  the  war.2 
There  is  a  remarkable  concurrence  between 
this  view  of  Mr.  Davis  and  that  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln in  a  letter  to  a  friend  which  we  have 
quoted  in  another  place.  Referring  to  the 
emissaries  at  Niagara  Falls  and  their  interest 
in  the  Chicago  convention,  and  also  to  the 
expressions  used  by  the  Confederate  author- 
ities in  their  conversation  with  Jaquess,  Mr. 
Lincoln  said,  "  The  Presidential  contest  is 
between  a  Union  and  a  Disunion  candidate, 
disunion  certainly  following  the  success  of  the 
latter!"3 
Mr.  Thompson,  in  his  report  of  the  opera- 
tions of  the  rebel  commission  in  Canada,  claims 
that  the  results  of  the  Niagara  Falls  confer- 
ence were  the  source  of  such  encouragement  to 
the  peace  party  as  to  lead  them  to  give  up 
their  half- formed  project  of  insurrection  in  the 
North-west  in  the  hope  of  defeating  Lincoln 
at  the  polls.  In  the  midst  of  these  discourag- 
ing circumstances  the  manifesto  of  Wade  and 
Davis  came  to  add  its  depressing  influence  to 
the  general  gloom.  It  seemed  for  a  time  as  if 
this  action  of  two  of  the  most  prominent  Re- 
publicans in  either  house  of  Congress  would 
result  in  a  serious  defection  from  the  Repub- 
lican party,  though  in  the  end  the  effect  of  the 
demonstration  proved  inconsiderable. 
General  McClellan  had  before  this  time 
become  the  acknowledged  leader  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  in  the  North.    It  is  true  he  was 
2  Davis,  "  Rise  and  fall  of  the  Confederate  States,"         3  Lincoln  to  Wakeman,  July  25,  1864.    Unpublished 
Vol.  II.,  p.   611.  MS. 
1  Copyright  by  J.  G.  Nicolay  and  John  Hay,  1886.     All  rights  reserved. 
THE    CHICAGO    SURRENDER. 
■  HE  Democratic  managers 
had  called  the  National 
Convention  of  their  party  to 
meet  on  the  Fourth  of  July, 
1S64,  but  after  the  nomination 
of  Fremont  at  Cleveland  and 
of  Lincoln  at  Baltimore  it  was  thought  prudent 
to  postpone  it  to  a  later  date,  in  the  hope  that 
something  in  the  chapter  of  accidents  might 
arise  to  the  advantage  of  the  opposition.  It 
appeared  for  awhile  as  if  this  manoeuvre  were 
to  be  successful.  As  a  vessel  showrs  its  finest 
sailing  qualities  against  a  head  wind,  so  the 
best  political  work  is  always  done  in  the  face 
of  severe  opposition;  and  as  the  Republican 
party  had  as  yet  no  enemy  before  it,  the  canvass, 
during  its  first  months,  seemed  stricken  with 
languor  and  apathy.  The  military  situation 
was  far  from  satisfactory.  The  terrible  fighting 
in  the  Wilderness,  succeeded  by  Grant's  flank 
movement  to  the  left,  and  the  culmination 
of  the  campaign  in  the  horrible  slaughter  at 
Cold  Harbor,  had  profoundly  shocked  and 
depressed  the  country.  The  movement  upon 
Petersburg,  so  far  without  decisive  results,  had 
contributed  little  of  hope  or  encouragement; 
the  campaign  of  Sherman  in  Georgia  gave  as 
yet  no  positive  assurance  of  the  brilliant  result 
it  afterwards  attained ;  the  Confederate  raid 
into  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania,  in  July,  was 
the  cause  of  great  annoyance  and  exasperation. 
This  untoward  state  of  things  in  the  field  of 
military  operations  found  its  exact  counterpart 
in  the  political  campaign.  Several  circum- 
stances contributed  to  divide  and  discourage 
the  Administration  party.  The  resignation  of 
Mr.  Chase,  on  the  last  day  of  June,  had  seemed, 
to  not  a  few  leading  Republicans  at  the  North, 
as  a  presage  of  disintegration  in  the  Govern- 
ment ;  Mr.  Greeley's  mission  to  Niagara  Falls, 
in  spite  of  the  wise  and  resolute  attitude  taken 
by  the  President  in  relation  to  peace  negotia- 
tions, had  unsettled  and  troubled  the  minds 
of  many.  The  Democratic  party,  not  having 
as  yet  appointed  a  candidate  nor  formulated 
a  platform,  were  free  to  devote  all  their  leisure
THE   CHICAGO   SURRENDER. 
547 
not  the  favorite  candidate  of  the  Democracy 
in  most  of  the  Western  States,  but  in  the  pow- 
erful States  of  the  seaboard,  and  especially  in 
the  large  cities,  he  was  the  only  person  indi- 
cated by  popular  consent  among  the  opposi- 
tion as  the  antagonist  of  Lincoln  in  the  Presi- 
dential canvass.  His  attitude  was  therefore 
a  matter  of  grave  preoccupation,  not  only  to 
most  of  the  leading  Republicans,  but  even  to 
the  President  himself.  There  have  been,  in  the 
last  twenty  years,  many  conflicting  stories  in 
regard  to  the  overtures  made  to  him  during 
this  summer;  but,  so  far  as  can  be  ascertained, 
they  were  all  the  voluntary  acts  of  over-anx- 
ious friends  of  the  President,  and  made  without 
his  knowledge  or  consent.  As  early  as  the 
month  of  June,  1863,  Mr.  Thurlow  Weed  con- 
ceived the  idea  that  it  would  be  of  great 
advantage  to  the  Union  cause  if  General 
McClellan  would  take  a  prominent  part  in  a 
great  war  meeting  to  be  held  in  New  York. 
With  the  knowledge  and  approval  of  the  Presi- 
dent he  approached  the  general  with  this  pur- 
pose ;  he  even  suggested  to  him  that  the  result 
might  be  the  organization  of  a  movement  to 
make  him  the  Union  candidate  for  the  Presi- 
dency. We  learn  from  Mr.  Weed  that  General 
McClellan  at  first  gave  a  favorable  hearing  to 
the  proposition,  but  at  the  last  moment  with- 
drew his  consent  to  preside  at  the  meeting  in 
a  letter  in  which  he  said :  "  I  am  clear  in  the 
conviction  that  the  policy  governing  the  con- 
duct of  the  war  should  be  one  looking  not 
only  to  military  success,  but  also  to  ultimate 
reunion,  and  that  it  should  consequently  be 
such  as  to  preserve  the  rights  of  all  Union- 
loving  citizens,  wherever  they  may  be,  as  far 
as  compatible  with  military  necessity."  1  The 
chance  of  identifying  himself  with  the  Union 
party  thus  passed  away ;  later  in  the  season  he 
came  out  in  favor  of  the  candidates  of  the  peace 
faction  in  Pennsylvania. 
An  attempt  made  in  July,  1864,  by  Mr. 
Francis  P.  Blair,  the  elder,  to  induce  McClel- 
lan to  withdraw  from  the  canvass  caused  a 
great  deal  of  gossip  at  the  time,  and  led  to  such 
misstatements  and  exaggerations  that  Mr.  Blair 
afterwards  published  a  full  and  detailed  ac- 
count of  his  action.2  This  venerable  gentleman, 
sharing  in  the  apprehension  entertained  by 
many  as  to  the  divisions  and  consequent  weak- 
ness of  the  Union  party,  went  to  New  York 
in  the  latter  part  of  July  "  to  make  an  effort  at 
conciliation."  "  I  went  on  this  errand,"  said 
Mr.  Blair,  "  without  consulting  the  President, 
without  giving  him,  directly  or  indirectly,  the 
slightest  intimation  of  my  object,  and,  of  course, 
without  his  authority.  I  apprised  no  one  but 
my  son."    He  first   called  upon  the  leading 
1  T.  W.  Barnes,  "The  Life  of  Thurlow  Weed,"  Vol. 
II.,  p.  429. 
editors  of  the  city.    Mr.  Bryant,  though  dis- 
contented with  the  Administration,  co 
Mr.  Lincoln,  with  all  hi;  abatements,  the 
man  who  could  be  relied  upon  for  the  defense 
of  the  Union.    Mr.  Greeley  assured   Mr.  Blair 
that  "  his  best  efforts  would  not  be  wanti: 
secure  the  peace  of  the  country  through   the 
reelection  of  the  President";  Mr.  Bennett  of 
the  "  Herald  "  gave  his  ultimatum  in  a  "  raucle 
Scotch  accent  "  —  "Tell  him  to  restore  McClel- 
lan to  the  army  and  he  will  carry  the  election 
by  default."  Through  Mr.  S.  L.  M.  Barlow, 
Mr.  Blair  had  a  long  and  intimate  < 
tion  with  General  McGlellan.  He  began  by 
stating  distinctly  to  him  that  he  had  not  come 
from  Mr.  Lincoln;  that  he  had  no  authority 
or  even  consent  from  him  to  make  representa- 
tions or  overtures  of  any  sort.  He  then  urged 
him,  with  the  privilege  of  age  and  long  friend- 
ship, to  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  Chicago 
convention,  saying  that  if  he  accepted  their 
nomination  he  would  be  defeated.  He  pictured 
to  him  the  dismal  fate  that  awaits  defeated  can- 
didates; he  urged  him  to  make  himself  the 
inspiring  center  and  representative  of  the  loyal 
Democrats  of  the  North  by  writing  a  letter  to 
Lincoln  asking  to  be  restored  to  service  in  the 
army,  declaring  at  the  same  time  that  he  did 
not  seek  it  with  a  view  to  recommend  himself 
to  the  Presidential  nomination.  "  In  case  the 
President  should  refuse  this  request,"  said  Mr. 
Blair,  "  he  would  then  be  responsible  for  the 
consequences."  General  McClellan  received 
this  well-meant  advice  in  his  customary  manner. 
It  is  altogether  probable  that  he  did  not  be- 
lieve a  word  of  Mr.  Blair's  opening  statement 
that  this  overture  was  without  the  approval 
or  privity  of  the  President.  It  no  doubt  seemed 
to  him  a  political  trick  to  induce  him  to  de- 
cline the  nomination  of  which  he  was  already 
certain.  He  listened  with  his  habitual  courtesy 
and  answered  with  his  habitual  indecision.  He 
disclaimed  any  desire  for  the  Presidential  can- 
didacy; he  thanked  Mr.  Blair  for  his  friendly 
suggestions ;  he  said  he  would  give  them  deep 
consideration ;  that  he  was  called  to  the  coun- 
try to  see  a  sick  child  and  regretted  that  he 
could  not  talk  with  him  again.  Mr.  Blair 
came  back  from  his  useless  mission  and  re- 
peated to  Mr.  Lincoln  what  he  had  done, 
adding  that  he  thought  it  probable  that  Gen- 
eral McClellan  would  write  to  him.  The 
President  "  neither  expressed  approval  nor  dis- 
approbation," says  Mr.  Blair  in  his  letter,  "  but 
his  manner  was  as  courteous  and  kind  as  Gen- 
eral McClellan's  had  been." 
The  political  situation  grew  darker  thro:  g 
out  the  summer.    At  last,  towards  the  end  ot 
August,  the    general    gloom    and    depression 
2  Letter  of  F.   P.   Blair,  dated  Oct.  5,  1S04,  in  the 
"  National  Intelliiiencer."
54« 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
enveloped  the  President  himself.  The  Demo- 
crats had  not  yet  selected  their  candidate  nor 
opened  their  campaign.  As  in  the  held  of 
theology  there  is  no  militant  virtue  unless  there 
is  an  active  evil  to  oppose,  so  in  that  of  politics 
a  party  without  an  organized  opposition  appears 
to  drop  to  pieces  by  its  own  weight.  To  use 
Mr.  Lincoln's  words :  "At  this  period  we  had 
no  adversary  and  seemed  to  have  no  friends." 
For  a  moment  he  despaired  of  the  success  of 
the  Union  party  in  the  coming  election.  He 
was  not  alone  in  this  impression.  It  was  shared 
by  his  leading  friends  and  counselors.  So  ex- 
perienced and  astute  a  politician  as  Mr.  Thur- 
low  Weed  wrote  on  the  2  2d  of  August : 
When,  ten  days  since,  I  told  Mr.  Lincoln  that  his  re- 
election wasan  impossibility,  I  also  told  him  thatthe 
information  would  soon  come  to  him  through  other 
channels.  It  has  doubtless  ere  this  reached  him.  At 
any  rate  nobody  here  doubts  it,  nor  do  I  see  anybody 
from  other  States  who  authorizes  the  slightest  hope 
of  success.  Mr.  Raymond,  who  has  just  left  me,  says 
that  unless  some  prompt  and  bold  step  be  taken  all 
is  lost.  The  people  are  wild  for  peace.  They  are 
told  that  the  President  will  only  listen  to  terms  of 
peace  on  condition  that  slavery  be  abandoned.  .  .  . 
Mr.  Raymond  thinks  that  commissioners  should  be 
immediately  sent  to  Richmond  offering  to  treat  for 
peace  0.1  the  basis  of  Union.  That  something  should 
be  done  and  promptly  done  to  give  the  Administra- 
tion a  chance  for  its  life  is  certain.1 
Mr.  Lincoln's  action  in  this  conjuncture  was 
most  original  and  characteristic.  Feeling  that 
the  campaign  was  going  against  him,  he  made 
up  his  mind  deliberately  as  to  the  course  he 
should  pursue,  and  unwilling  to  leave  his  reso- 
lution to  the  chances  of  the  changed  mood 
which  might  follow  in  the  natural  exasperation 
of  defeat,  he  resolved  to  lay  down  for  himself 
the  course  of  action  demanded  by  his  present 
conviction  of  duty.  He  wrote  on  the  23d  of 
August  the  following  memorandum: 
This  morning,  as  for  several  days  past,  it  seems 
exceedingly  probable  that  this  Administration  will 
not  be  reelected.  Then  it  will  be  my  duty  to  so 
cooperate  with  the  President-elect  as  to  save  the 
Union  between  the  election  and  the  inauguration  ; 
1  Weed  to  Seward,  August  22.    MS. 
2  Copied  from  the  MS. 
'■>  We  copy  from  the  MS.  diary  of  one  of  the  Presi- 
dents secretaries  under  date  of  November  II,  1864, 
the  following  passage  relating  to  this  incident :  "At 
the  meeting  of  the  Cabinet  to-day  the  President  took 
out  a  paper  from  his  desk  and  said  :  '  Gentlemen,  do 
you  remember  last  summer  I  asked  you  all  to  sign 
your  names  to  the  back  of  a  paper  of  which  I  did  not 
show  you  the  inside  ?  This  is  it.  Now,  Mr.  Hay,  see  if 
you  can  open  this  without  tearing  it.'  He  had  pasted  it 
up  in  so  singular  a  style  that  it  required  some  cutting  to 
get  it  open.  He  then  read  this  memorandum  [given  in 
the  text  above].  The  President  said  :  '  You  will  remem- 
ber that  this  was  written  at  the  time,  six  days  before  the 
Chicago  nominating  convention,  when  as  yet  we  had 
no  adversary  and  seemed  to  have  no  friends.  I  then 
solemnly  resolved  on  the  course  of  action  indicated  in 
as  he  will  have  secured  his  election  on  such  ground 
that  he  cannot  possibly  save  it  afterwards.2 
He  then  folded  and  pasted  the  sheet  in  such 
manner  that  its  contents  could  not  be  read,  and 
as  the  Cabinet  came  together  he  handed  this 
paper  to  each  member  successively,  requesting 
them  to  write  their  names  across  the  back  of  it. 
In  this  peculiar  fashion  he  pledged  himself  and 
the  Administration  to  accept  loyally  the  antici- 
pated verdict  of  the  people  against  him,  and 
to  do  the  utmost  to  save  the  Union  in  the  brief 
remainder  of  his  term  of  office.  He  gave  no 
intimation  to  any  member  of  the  Cabinet  of 
the  nature  of  the  paper  they  had  signed  until 
after  his  triumphant  reelection.3 
The  Democratic  convention  was  finally 
called  to  meet  in  Chicago  on  the  29th  of 
August.  Much  was  expected  from  the  strength 
and  the  audacity  which  the  peace  party  in  the 
North-west  had  recently  displayed,  and  the  day 
of  the  meeting  of  the  convention  was  actually 
chosen  by  rebel  emissaries  in  Canada  and  their 
agents  in  the  Western  States  for  an  outbreak 
which  should  effect  that  revolution  in  the  North- 
west which  was  the  vague  and  chimerical  dream 
that  had  been  so  long  cherished  and  caressed 
in  Richmond  and  Toronto. 
About  the  time  of  the  adjournment  of  Con- 
gress the  Democratic  members  of  that  body 
issued  an  address  to  their  party,  which,  when 
read  after  twenty-five  years,  shows  how  blinded 
by  partisan  passion  these  intelligent  and  well- 
meaning  gentlemen,  neither  better  nor  worse 
in  most  respects  than  the  rest  of  their  fellow- 
citizens,  had  become.  They  charged  in  effect 
that  there  were  only  two  classes  of  people  sup- 
porting the  Government — those  who  were  mak- 
ing money  out  of  the  war,  and  the  Radical  abo- 
litionists ;  and  they  called  upon  the  indefinite 
abstraction  which  they  named  "  the  country  " 
to  throw  out  of  office  the  administration  of  a 
Government  under  favor  of  which  these  two 
classes  of  men  "nestle  in  power  and  gratify 
their  unholy  greed  and  their  detestable  pas- 
sions." The  party  of  the  Union — that  is  to  say, 
the  majority  of  the  people  of  the  country — is 
this  paper.  I  resolved  in  case  of  the  election  of  General 
McClellan,  being  certain  that  he  would  be  the  candi- 
date, that  I  would  see  him  and  talk  matters  over  with 
him.  I  would  say,  "  General,  the  election  has  demon- 
strated that  you  are  stronger,  have  more  influence  with 
the  American  people,  than  I.  Now  let  us  together,  you 
with  your  influence  and  I  with  all  the  executive  power 
of  the  Government,  try  to  save  the  country.  You  raise 
as  many  troops  as  you  possibly  can  for  this  final  trial, 
and  I  will  devote  all  my  energies  to  assist  and  finish 
the  war."  ' 
"  Seward  said,  'And  the  general  would  have  answered 
you,  "  Yes,  yes  "  ;  and  the  next  day  when  you  saw  him 
again  and  pressed  these  views  upon  him  he  would 
have  said,  "  Yes,  yes,"  and  so  on  forever,  and  would 
have  done  nothing  at  all.' 
"  '  At  least,'  said  Lincoln, '  I  should  have  done  my 
duty  and  have  stood  clear  before  my  own  conscience.'  "
7V//C    CHICAGO   SURRENDER. 
549 
called  in  this  address  "a  nightmare  of  corrup- 
tion and  fanaticism  which  is  pressing  out  its 
very  existence."  The  most  remarkable  feature 
of  this  singular  document  is  its  assumption 
that  the  people  who  were  trying  to  save  the 
Union  and  to  reestablish  its  authority  were  in- 
fluenced only  by  sentimental  doctrines  and 
the  wild  passions  of  fury  and  vengeance.  "  We 
do  not  decry  theory,"  these  congressmen 
gravely  said;  "  but  we  assert  that  statesmanship 
is  concerned  mainly  in  the  domain  of  the 
practical,  and  that  in  the  present  imperfect  con- 
dition of  human  affairs  it  is  obliged  to  modify 
general  ideas  and  adapt  them  to  existing  con- 
ditions." They  called  upon  the  country  to 
sustain  this  calm  and  philosophic  view  of  the 
functions  of  statesmanship,  "to  bring  the  sound 
elements  of  society  to  the  surface,"  to  "  purge 
the  body  politic  of  its  unhealthy  elements," 
and  to  substitute  in  places  of  public  trust  "just 
and  broad-minded,  pure  and  liberal  men,  in 
the  place  of  radicals  and  corruptionists."  This 
being  done,  they  promised  the  millennium. 
The  Democratic  National  Convention  came 
together  at  the  time  appointed,  but  it  is  by  no 
means  sure  that  any  real  and  permanent  ad- 
vantage had  been  gained  by  the  delay.  The 
scheme  of  the  American  Knights  to  inaugu- 
rate on  that  day  their  counter-revolution  had, 
by  the  usual  treachery  of  some  of  its  members, 
been  discovered  and  guarded  against  by  a 
strong  show  of  force  in  the  city  of  Chicago, 
and  its  execution  was  postponed  until  the  day 
of  the  November  election.  No  great  approach 
to  harmony,  on  the  subject  of  peace  or  war, 
had  been  made  in  the  two  months  of  observa- 
tion and  skirmishing  which  the  managers  had 
allowed  themselves.  The  only  manner  in 
which  the  peace  men  and  the  war  Democrats 
could  arrive  at  an  agreement  was  by  mutual 
deception.  The  war  Democrats,  led  by  the 
delegation  from  New  York,  were  working  for 
a  military  candidate ;  and  the  peace  Democrats, 
under  the  redoubtable  leadership  of  Mr.  Val- 
landigham,  who  had  returned  from  Canada  and 
was  allowed  to  remain  at  large  by  the  half- 
contemptuous  and  half-calculated  lenity  of  the 
Government  he  defied,  bent  all  their  energies 
to  a  clear  statement  of  their  principles  in  the 
platform. 
Mr.  August  Belmont,  a  German  by  birth 
and  the  representative  of  the  Rothschilds' 
banking-house,  called  the  delegates  to  order, 
informing  them  that  the  future  of  the  Republic 
rested  in  their  hands.  "  Four  years  of  misrule," 
he  said,  "  by  a  sectional,  fanatical,  and  corrupt 
party  have  brought  our  country  to  the  very 
verge  of  ruin."  He  gravely  stated,  expecting 
it  to  be  believed,  and  apparently  believing  it 
himself,  that  the  "  results  of  such  a  calamity  as 
the  reelection    of   Mr.  Lincoln  must  be  the 
utter  disintegration  of  our  whole  political  and 
so<  i.il  system  amidst  bloodshed  and  ■  ■ 
This  German  banker  promi  led  ' 
that  the  American  people  would  rush  to  the 
support  of  their  candidate  and  platform,  "pro- 
vided you  will  oner  to  their  sunrag 
patriot."    This  vague  reference  to  Mc<  Mian 
was  greeted  with  applause  from  the  Eastern 
delegates.    Mr.  Belmont  said  ■   ';  We 
not  as  war  Democrats  nor  as  peace    D 
crats,  but  as  citizens  of  the  great  Republic 
and   he  named  as  temporary  chairman    Mr. 
William   Bigler,  formerly  governor  of   Penn- 
sylvania.   Mr.    Bigler    made    a    brief   speech 
charging  upon  the  Republicans  all  the  ■ 
of  the  country,  and  saying  that  u  the  men  now 
in  authority,  because  of  the  feud  which  they 
have  so  long  maintained  with  violent  and  un- 
wise men  of  the  South,  and  because  of  a  blind 
fanaticism  about  an  institution  of  some  of  the 
States  in  relation  to  which  they  have  no  d 
to  perform  and  no  responsibilities  to  bear,  are 
rendered  incapable    of   adopting  the   proper 
means  to  rescue  our  country  from  its  pre 
lamentable  condition." 
The  usual  committees  were  appointed,  and 
Mr.  Vallandigham  was  presented  by  his  State 
delegation  as  a  member  of  the  committee  on 
platform.  Several  resolutions  were  offered  in 
open  convention  —  one  by  Washington  Hunt 
of  New  York  suggesting  a  convention  of  the 
States;  one  by  Mr.  Price  of  Missouri  for  a 
demonstration  in  favor  of  the  freedom  and 
purity  of  the  elective  franchise  ;  and  one  by 
Mr.  Long  of  Ohio,  a  furious  advocate  of  pe 
who  had  attained  the  honor  of  censure  by 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  suggested 
that  a  committee  proceed  forthwith  to  Wash- 
ington to  demand  of  Mr.  Lincoln  the  suspen- 
sion of  the  draft  until  after  the  election. 
Governor  Seymour  of  New  York  was  chosen 
permanent  chairman  of  the  convention.  He 
made  a  long  and  eloquent  speech  full  of 
devotion  to  the  Union  and  of  denunciation  of 
all  the  measures  that  had  hitherto  been  taken 
to  save  it.  "  This  Administration.*'  he  said, 
"cannot  save  this  Lmion  if  it  would.  It  has. 
by  its  proclamations,  by  vindictive  legislation, 
by  displays  of  hate  and  passion,  placed  ob- 
stacles in  its  own  pathway  which  it  cannot 
overcome,  and  has  hampered  its  own  freedom 
of  action  by  unconstitutional  acts."'  But  Mr. 
Seymour  did  not  mourn  as  one  without  hope. 
He  continued  :  "  If  the  Administration  cannot 
save  this  Union,  we  can.  Mr.  Lincoln  values 
many  things  above  the  Union  :  we  put  it  first 
of  all.  He  thinks  a  proclamation  worth  more 
than  peace  ;  we  think  the  blood  of  our  people 
more  precious  than  the  edicts  ot  the  Presi- 
dent. .  .  .  We  demand  no  conditions  for  the 
restoration  of  our  Union.    We   are   shackled
5  5° 
ABRAHAM  LIXCOLX. 
do  hates,  no  prejudices,  no  passions."  And 
so. —  as  he  imagined. —  without  prejudices, 
without  hatred,  and  without  passion,  he  went  on 
denouncing  Ins  Government  and  the  majority  of 
his  fellow-citizens  with  eloquent  fury  to  the  end 
of  his  speech.  His  address  was  greeted  at  its 
close  with  loud  applause,  not  unmingled  with 
-  on  the  part  oi  the  peace  men  for  Vallan- 
digham.  He  did  not  respond  at  that  moment, 
but  the  most  weighty  utterance  of  the  con- 
vention was  his,  nevertheless  —  the  second 
resolution  of  the  platform,  reported  by  the 
chairman,  Mr.  Guthrie  of  Kentucky.  There 
had  been  on  the  organization  of  the  committee  a 
contest  between  Guthrie  and  Vallandigham  for 
the  chairmanship.  "  Through  the  artifices  of 
ly,  Tilden,  and  other  New  York  politi- 
cians,"1 Mr.  Guthrie  of  Kentucky  received 
twelve  votes  to  eight  for  Vallandigham;  but 
whatever  managers  may  accomplish,  the  strong- 
est man  with  the  strongest  force  behind  him 
generally  has  his  way,  and  when  the  committee 
got  to  work  Vallandigham  carried  too  many 
guns  for  Guthrie.  He  wrote,  to  use  his  own 
words, 
the  material  resolution  of  the  Chicago  platform,  and 
carried  it  through  the  sub-committee  and  the  gen- 
eral committee  in  spite  of  the  most  desperate  and 
persistent  opposition  on  the  part  of  Cassidy  and  his 
friends,  Mr.  Cassidy  himself  in  an  adjoining  room 
laboring  to  defeat  it. 
This  Vallandigham  resolution  is  the  only 
one  in  the  platform  worth  quoting.  All  the 
rest  was  a  string  of  mere  commonplaces  de- 
claring devotion  to  the  Union,  denouncing 
interference  of  the  military  in  elections,  enu- 
merating the  illegal  and  arbitrary  acts  of  the 
Government,  expressing  the  sympathy  of  the 
convention  with  soldiers  and  sailors  and  pris- 
oners of  war.  But  the  resolution  written  by 
Mr.  Vallandigham  and  by  him  forced  upon 
his  party  — 
Resolved,  That  this  convention  does  explicitly 
declare,  as  the  sense  of  the  American  people,  that 
after  four  years  of  failure  to  restore  the  Union  by 
theexperimentof  war,  during  which,  under  the  pre- 
tense of  a  military  necessity,  or  war  power  higher 
than  the  Constitution,  the  Constitution  itself  has 
been  disregarded  in  every  part,  and  public  liberty 
and  private  right  alike  trodden  down  and  the  ma- 
terial prosperity  of  the  country  essentially  impaired, 
justice,  humanity,  liberty,  and  the  public  welfare 
demand  that  immediate  efforts  be  made  for  a  ces- 
sation of  hostilities,  with  a  view  to  an  ultimate 
convention  of  the  States,  or  other  peaceable  means, 
to  the  end  that  at  the  earliest  practicable  moment 
peace  may  be  restored  on  the  basis  of  the  Federal 
Union  of  the  States. 
It  is  altogether  probable  that  this  distinct 
proposition  of  surrender  to  the  Confederates 
1  Letter  of  Vallandigham  to  the  New  York  "  News," 
Oct.  22.  1864. 
might  have  been  modified  or  defeated  in  full 
convention  if  the  war  Democrats  had  had  the 
courage  of  their  convictions;  but  they  were  so 
intent  upon  the  nomination  of  McClellan  that 
they  considered  the  question  of  platform  as  of 
secondary  importance,  and  these  fatal  resolu- 
tions were  therefore  adopted  without  debate, 
and  the  convention  passed  to  the  nomination 
of  candidates.  General  McClellan  was  nomi- 
nated by  Mr.  Stockton  of  New  Jersey,  fol- 
lowed by  S.  S.  Cox  of  Ohio  ;  Mr.  Saulsbury  of 
Delaware  nominated  Mr.  Powell  of  Kentuckv, 
who  with  compliments  declined;  Mr.  Stuart, 
in  behalf  of  the  peace  faction  from  Ohio,  nomi- 
nated Mr.  Seymour  of  Connecticut;  and  Mr. 
Wickliffe  of  Kentucky  raised  the  specter  of  the 
old-fashioned  Democracy  in  the  convention 
by  nominating  ex-President  Pierce  in  a  speech 
more  amusing  than  effective.  McClellan  re- 
ceived 174  votes,  but  before  the  result  was  de- 
clared the  vote  was  raised  upon  revision  to 
202  ;  Seymour  received  a  little  more  than  one- 
tenth  of  that  number.  Mr.  Vallandigham,  who 
had  taken  possession  of  the  convention  through 
his  platform,  now  adopted  the  candidate  also, 
and  put  the  seal  of  his  sinister  approval  upon 
General  McClellan  by  moving  that  his  nomi- 
nation be  made  unanimous,  which  was  done 
with  great  cheering.  Mr.  Wickliffe,  the  comic 
old  man  of  the  convention,  then  offered  a  reso- 
lution that  General  McClellan,  immediately 
after  his  inauguration  in  March  next,  should 
"  open  Abraham  Lincoln's  prison  doors  and 
let  the  captives  free."  Mr.  Guthrie  and  Mr. 
Pendleton  were  the  principal  names  mentioned 
in  the  first  ballot  for  Vice-President,  but  on 
the  second  New  York  changed  from  Guthrie  to 
Pendleton,  and,  all  the  other  candidates  being 
withdrawn,  he  was  nominated,  unanimously. 
Pendleton  came  to  the  stand  and  briefly  ad- 
dressed the  convention,  accepting  the  nomina- 
tion and  promising  to  continue  "  faithful  to 
those  principles  which  lay  at  the  very  bottom 
of  the  organization  of  the  Democratic  party." 
The  convention  did  not  adjourn  as  usual 
sine  die.  On  the  motion  of  Mr.  Wickliffe, 
who  said  that  a  the  delegates  from  the  West 
were  of  the  opinion  that  circumstances  might 
occur  between  now  and  the  4th  of  March 
next  which  would  make  it  proper  for  the 
Democracy  of  the  country  to  meet  in  conven- 
tion again,"  the  convention  resolved  to  "re- 
main as  organized,  subject  to  be  called  at  any 
time  and  place  that  the  Executive  National 
Committee  shall  designate."  The  motives  of 
this  action  were  not  avowed.  It  was  taken  as 
a  significant  warning  that  the  leaders  of  the 
Democratic  party  held  themselves  ready  for 
any  extraordinary  measures  which  the  exigen- 
cies of  the  time  might  provoke  or  invite. 
The  New  Yorkers  had,  however,  the  last
COXSPIRACIES  IX    THE    A 
'- 
word.  Mr.  Seymour,  as  Chairman  of  the  Con- 
vention, was  chairman  of  the  committee  to  in- 
form McClellan  of  his  nomination,  and  before 
he  wrote  the  letter  Atlanta  had  fallen,  the  tide 
had  turned,  and  the  winds  of  popular  opinion, 
which  had  seemed  stagnant  throughout  the 
midsummer,  now  began  to  blow  favorably  to 
the  national  cause.  The  committee,  in  their 
letter  dated  a  week  after  the  convention  ad- 
journed, said  : 
Be  assured  that  those  for  whom  we  speak  were 
animated  with  the  most  earnest,  de  verful 
Ivation  of  I 
preservation  of  :  led  States, 
.ind  tl  iplishment  of  thi 
the  g  s       /.  impelling  motive  in  every  mind; 
ani  we  may  be  permitted  to  add  that  then 
tj  maintain  the  Union  is  manifested  in  their  ; 
candidate,  oi  one  whose  life  has  bee- 
devoted  to  its  cause,  while  it  is  their  ea 
confident  belief  that  your  electirn  will  re 
::    :  ..r  country   Union.  Peace,  and   Constitutional 
Liberty. 
The  genera]  answered  on  the  same  d;.:e.: 
He  also  felt  with  the  New  York  politicians  that 
the  poison  of  death  was  in  the  platform  of  the 
convention :  that  if  he  accepted  it  pure  and  sim- 
ple the  campaign  was  hopeless :  his  only  pos- 
sible chance  for  success  was  in  his  war  re: :  i  3 
his  position  as  a  candidate  on  a  platform  of 
dishonorable  peace  was  no  less  desperate  than 
ridiculous.  He,  therefore,  in  his  letter  of  ac- 
ceptance renewed  his  assurances  of  devotion 
to  the  Union,  the  Constitution,  the  laws,  and 
the  flag  of  his  country. 
The  reestablishment  of  the  Union  [he  said]  in 
all  its  integrity  is.  and  must  continue  to  be,  the  in- 
dispensable condition  in  any  settlement.  So  soon 
as  it  is  clear,  or  even  probable,  that  our  presenl  ad- 
versaiies  a  re  ready  foi  peace,  upon  the  basis  of  the 
Union,  we  should  exhaust  all  the  resources  uf  states- 
manship practiced  by  civilized  nations  and  ta  e 
by  the  traditions  of  the  American  people,  consistent 
with  the  honor  and  interests  of  the  country,  to 
secure  such  peace,  reestablish  the  Union,  and  guar- 
antee for  the  future  the  constitutional  rightsof  even- 
State.  The  Union  is  the  one  condition  of  peace.  We 
ask  no  more.  Let  me  add.  what  I  doubt  not  was, 
although  unexpressed,  the  sentiment  of  the  conven- 
tion, as  it  is  of  the  people  they  represent,  thai 
any  one  State  is  willing  to  return  to  the  Union  it 
should  be  received  at  once,  with  a  full  guarantee  of 
ks  constitutional    rights.   .   .   .   But  the   I 
must  be  preserved  at  all  hazards.     I  coold  net  look 
in  the  face  of  my  gallant  comrades  of  the  arm 
.  who  have  survived  so  many  bloody  battles, 
tell  them  that  their  "...  the  saci ifice  of 
so  many  of  our  slain  and  wounded  brethren  had 
been  in  vain,  that  we  had  abandoned  that  Union  for 
which  we  have  so  often  periled  our  lives.  A  vast 
majority  of  our  people,  whether  in  the   arm;. 
or  a:  home,  would,  as  1  would,  hail  with  un- 
i  Sept.  S,  1S64. 
-  At  Sidney,  Ohio.  Sept.  24. 
boun  permanent  restoration  of  pe^ 
the  basis  of  the  Union  under  theCoi 
out  the  effusion  of  another  drop  of 
peace  can  be  permanent  without  un 
Having  thus  a)     lately  re] 
form  upon  which  he  was  nominated,  he  < 
concluded, "Beheving  that  the  views  her 
pressed  are  those  of  the  < 
people  you  represent,  I  accept  thenomina. 
m  this  contradictor)    body  of  do<  I 
McClellan  began  his  campaign.  The  platform 
of  the  convention  was  the  law.  I 
the  gospel,  and  the  orators  of  the  party  r 
reconcile  the  two  according  to  then 
thies  or  their  ingenuity.    T:  ng  had  no 
hesitation  in  taking  its  star.  Chicago 
platform.  [r.   Vallandigham.   spe 
.  the  same  platform  with  Mr.  Pendleton  on 
the  17th  of  September.  .licy 
and  principles  by  authority  and  was  binding 
upon  even'  Democrat,  and  by  them  the  i 
ocratic   Administration  must   and  should   be 
srned.    It  was  the  only  authorized  exposi- 
tion of  the  Democratic  creed,  and  he  repudi- 
I  all  others."    And  a  week  afterwards  - 
stiD  further  and  specifically  contradicted 
General  McClellan. 
7.-. .  :     . 
ance   to  which  I  object 
committee.    The  one  containir_ 
the 
effect  that  until  the  States  and  people  of  the  S 
had  returned  to  the  L  .aust 
thess  a  rts  ; :'  5 1 1 1  e  sn 
d  but   three  votes  in  that  committee,  tfa 
ited  almost   in  the     . 
[     NSPIRACESS  IX  THE  NORTH. 
Opposition  to  the  Government  by  constitu- 
7.  means  v  g  g       :"y  the  ve- 
hement and  resen:-  gs  of  those  Demo- 
crats  in  the  North  whose  zeal  for  slav  ery  seemed 
completely  to  have      a      ved  in  their  bx 
even-  impulse  of  patriotism.    They  n  e 
:;   lo  the  work  ::  ti  e  Southern  C 
the  North,  and  were  alone  :heir 
:fthe  law.  To  evade  the  res  5  of  jus 
and  the  sharp  measures  of  the  military  a^: 
:s:r;::on,  they  formed  throughout  the 
secre:  :::>ns  for  the  purpose 
the  laws,  of  embarrassing  in  even-  way  the  action 
of  the  Government,  of  communicating  informa- 
tion to  the  rebels  in  arms,  and  in  c:. 
of  inflicting  serious  d:.       s  the  lives  and 
property  of  the  Unionists.    They  adoptee 
ous  names  in  different  parts  of  the  country-,  but 
^pted.  by  the  society  ha 
the  largest  numb; at  ges  .rent 
5::.:es  ■•  as  the  "  Knights  of  the  Golden  C: 
As  last  as  tme  name  was  disc      ared  and  pub-
S52 
ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 
lished  it  was  cast  aside  and  another  adopted, 
and  the  same  organization  with  the  same  mem- 
bership appeared  successively  under  the  name 
we  have  mentioned  and  that  of  "  The  Order 
of  American  Knights,'' "  The  Order  of  the  Star," 
and  the  "  Sons  of  Liberty."  These  secret  or- 
ganizations possessed  a  singular  charm  to  un- 
educated men,  independent  of  their  political 
sympathies;  and  this  attraction,  combined  with 
the  fact  that  they  could  not  in  plain  daylight 
inflict  any  injury  upon  the  Government,  drove 
many  thousands  of  the  lower  class  of  Demo- 
crats into  these  furtive  lodges.  It  is  impossible 
to  ascertain,  with  any  degree  of  exactness,  the 
numbers  of  those  who  became  affiliated  with 
the  orders.  The  numbers  claimed  by  the  adepts 
vary  widely.  A  million  was  not  infrequently 
the  membership  of  which  they  boasted.  Mr. 
Vallandigham  asserted,  in  a  public  speech, 
that  the  organized  body  numbered  half  a  mill- 
ion. Judge  Holt,  in  his  official  report,  accepted 
this  aggregate  as  being  something  near  the  truth. 
The  heaviest  force  was  in  Illinois  and  in  Indi- 
ana ;  in  Ohio  they  were  also  very  numerous,  and 
m  the  border  States  of  Kentucky  and  Missouri. 
Their  organization  was  entirely  military;  the 
State  lodges  were  commanded  by  major-gen- 
erals, the  congressional  districts  by  brigadiers, 
the  counties  by  colonels,  and  the  townships  by 
captains.  They  drilled  as  much  as  was  possi- 
ble under  the  limitations  of  secrecy ;  they  made 
large  purchases  of  arms.  General  Carrington 
estimated  that  30,000  guns  and  revolvers  were 
brought  into  Indiana  alone,  and  the  adherents 
of  the  order  in  the  State  of  Illinois  were  also 
fully  armed.  In  the  month  of  March,  1864,  it 
was  estimated  that  the  entire  armed  force  of 
the  order  capable  of  being  mobilized  for  ac- 
tive service  was  340,000  men.1  It  is  altogether 
probable  that  this  estimate  was  greatly  ex- 
aggerated ;  and  even  if  so  large  a  number  had 
been  initiated  into  the  order,  their  lack  of  drill, 
discipline,  and  moral  character  rendered  them 
incapable  at  any  time  of  acting  as  an  army. 
The  order  was  large  enough  at  least  to  offer 
the  fullest  hospitality  to  detectives  and  to 
Union  men  who  volunteered  to  join  with  the 
purpose  of  reporting  what  they  could  to  the 
authorities;  so  that  the  Government  was  speed- 
ily put  in  possession  of  the  entire  scheme  of 
organization,  with  the  names  of  the  prominent 
officers  of  the  order  and  written  copies  of 
their  constitutions,  oaths,  and  books  of  ritual. 
The  constitutions  of  secret  societies  are  gen- 
erally valuable  only  as  illustrations  of  human 
stupidity,  and  these  were  no  exception  to  the 
rule.  Their  declaration  of  principles  begins 
with  this  lucid  proposition :  "  All  men  are  en- 
dowed by  the  Creator  with  certain  rights;  equal 
1  Report  of  Judge-Advocate  General  Holt. 
2  Ibid. 
as  far  as  there  is  equality  in  the  capacity  for  the 
appreciation,  enjoyment,  and  exercise  of  those 
rights."  The  institution  of  slavery  receives  the 
approval  of  this  band  of  midnight  traitors  in 
the  following  muddled  and  brutal  sentences : 
In  the  divine  economy  no  individual  of  the  hu- 
man race  must  be  permitted  to  encumber  the  earth, 
to  mar  its  aspects  of  transcendent  beauty,  nor  to  im- 
pede the  progress  of  the  physical  or  intellectual  man, 
neither  in  himself  nor  in  the  race  to  which  he  be- 
longs. Hence  a  people  .  .  .  whom  neither  the 
divinity  within  them  nor  the  inspirations  of  divine 
and  beautiful  nature  around  them  can  impel  to  vir- 
tuous action  and  progress  onward  and  upward, 
should  be  subjected  to  a  just  and  humane  servitude 
and  tutelage  to  the  superior  race  until  they  shall  be 
able  to  appreciate  the  benefits  and  advantages  of 
civilization. 
They  also  declare  in  favor  of  something 
they  imagine  to  be  the  theory  of  State  rights, 
and  also  the  duty  of  the  people  to  expel  their 
rulers  from  the  Government  by  force  of  arms 
when  they  see  good  reason.  "  This  is  not  rev- 
olution," they  say,  "  but  solely  the  assertion  of 
State  rights."  Had  they  been  content  to  meet 
in  their  lodges  at  stated  times  and  bewilder 
themselves  by  such  rhetoric  as  this  there  would 
have  been  no  harm  done ;  but  there  is  plenty 
of  evidence  that  the  measures  they  adopted  to 
bring  what  they  called  their  principles  into 
action  were  of  positive  injury  to  the  national 
welfare.  One  of  their  chief  objects  was  the 
exciting  of  discontent  in  the  army  and  the  en- 
couraging of  desertion ;  members  of  the  order 
enlisted  with  the  express  purpose  of  inciting 
soldiers  to  desert  with  them;  money  and  citi- 
zens' clothing  were  furnished  them  for  this 
purpose ;  lawyers  were  hired  to  advise  soldiers 
on  leave  not  to  go  back  and  to  promise  them 
the  requisite  defense  in  the  courts  if  they  got 
into  trouble  by  desertion.  The  adjutant- gen- 
eral of  Indiana,  in  his  report  for  1863,  says 
that  the  number  of  deserters  and  absentees  re- 
turned to  the  army  through  the  post  of  Indian- 
apolis alone,  during  the  last  month  of  1862, 
was  about  2600.  The  squads  of  soldiers  sent 
to  arrest  deserters  were  frequently  attacked  in 
rural  districts  by  these  organized  bodies ;  the 
most  violent  resistance  was  made  to  the  en- 
rollment and  the  draft.  Several  enrolling  offi- 
cers were  shot  in  Indiana  and  in  Illinois ; 
about  sixty  persons  were  tried  and  convicted 
in  Indiana  for  conspiracy  to  resist  the  draft.2 
A  constant  system  of  communication  with  the 
rebels  in  arms  was  kept  up  across  the  border; 
arms,  ammunition,  and,  in  some  instances,  re- 
cruits, were  sent  to  aid  the  Confederates;  secret 
murders  and  assassinations  were  not  unknown ; 
the  plan  of  establishing  a  North-western  Con- 
federacy in  hostility  to  the  East  and  in  alliance 
with  the  Southern  Confederacy  was  the  favor-
CONSPIRACIES  IN    THE    NORTH 
55.3 
ite  dream  of  the  malignant  and  narrow  minds 
controlling  the  order.  The  Government  wisely 
took  little  notice  of  the  proceedings  of  this  or- 
ganization. It  was  constantly  informed  of  its 
general  plans  and  purposes;  the  Grand  Sec- 
retary of  the  order  in  Missouri  made  a  full 
confession  of  his  connection  with  it.  In  Au- 
gust a  large  number  of  copies  of  the  ritual  of 
the  order  of  American  Knights  were  seized  in 
the  office  of  D.  W.  Voorhees,  a  prominent 
Democratic  member  of  Congress  at  Terre 
Haute.1  A  private  soldier  in  the  Union  army, 
named  Stidger,  had  himself  initiated  into  the 
order,  and  with  infinite  skill  and  success  rose 
to  a  high  position  in  it,  becoming  Grand  Sec- 
retary for  the  State  of  Kentucky.  Thus 
thoroughly  informed  of  the  composition  and 
the  purposes  of  the  society,  the  Government 
was  constantly  able  to  guard  against  any  se- 
rious disturbances  of  the  public  peace ;  and 
whenever  the  arrest  of  any  of  the  ringleaders 
was  determined  upon,  the  evidence  for  their 
conviction  was  always  overwhelming. 
The  fullest  light  was  thrown  upon  the 
organization  and  plans  of  these  treasonable 
orders  by  the  trials  of  certain  conspirators  in 
Indiana  in  the  autumn  of  1864.  We  will  make 
no  reference  to  the  testimony  of  Government 
detectives  who  joined  the  conspiracy  with  the 
purpose  of  revealing  its  secrets.  It  is  sufficient 
to  quote  the  unwilling  and  unquestionably 
truthful  statements  of  members  of  the  order, 
brought  into  court  by  subpoena.  William  Clay- 
ton,2 a  farmer  of  Warren  County,  Illinois,  tes- 
tified that  he  was  initiated  a  member  of  the 
order  of  American  Knights  "at  a  congrega- 
tion formed  in  the  timber";  he  took  a  long 
and  bombastic  oath,  the  only  significant  part 
of  which  was  the  pledge  to  take  up  arms  if  re- 
quired, in  the  cause  of  the  oppressed  against 
usurpers  waging  war  against  a  people  endeav- 
oring to  establish  a  government  for  themselves 
in  accordance  with  the  eternal  principles  of 
truth ;  this,  he  testified,  bound  him  to  assist 
the  South  in  its  struggle  for  independence.  He 
said  he  understood  the  purpose  of  the  order 
was  primarily  to  beat  the  Republicans  at  the 
polls,  and  that  force  of  arms  was  to  be  re- 
sorted to  in  case  of  necessity;  that  they  con- 
templated a  rebel  invasion  in  support  of  these 
objects;  that  the  understanding  was  that  in 
case  the  rebels  came  into  Illinois,  they  and 
the  brethren  of  this  organization  were  to  shake 
hands  and  be  friends ;  that  they  were  to  give 
aid  and  assistance  to  the  invaders ;  that  death 
was  the  penalty  for  divulging  the  secrets  of  the 
order.  Other  members  testified  that  they  took 
an  oath  providing  that  in  case  of  treachery 
1  Report  of  Judge- Advocate  General. 
2  Treason  trials  at  Indianapolis,  p.  39. 
3  Ibid.,  p.  45.     4  Ibid.,  p.  125.     5  Ibid.,  p.  174. 
Vol.  XXXVIII.— 72-73. 
they  were  to  be  drawn  and  quartered,  their 
mangled  remains  to  be  cast  out  at  the 
gates.  When  these  duellers  in  prairie  vii.' 
were  asked  what  they  meant  by  "the  four 
gates,"  they  said  they  did  not  know.  Clayton 
further  said  their  objects  were  "  to  resist  the 
conscription  or  anything  else  that  pushed  them 
too  hard."  ::  Another  farmer  said  he  joined 
"because  he  had  been  a  Democrat  all  tris 
life";  another,  that  he  "went  in  out  of  curi- 
osity " —  and  this  was  doubtless  a  motive  with 
many.  In  communities  where  there  is  little  to 
interest  an  idle  mind  these  secret  mumm 
possess  a  singular  attraction.  The  grips,  the 
passwords,  the  emblems,  formed  a  great  part 
of  whatever  temptation  the  order  offered  to 
the  rural  conspirators.  Their  favorite  cogni- 
zance was  the  oak ;  not  on  account  of  any  civic 
association,  but  because  the  word  was  formed 
of  the  initials  of  the  name,  "  Order  of  Ameri- 
can Knights."  Their  grand  hailing  cry  of 
tress  was  "  Oak-houn,"  the  last  syllable  taken 
from  the  name  of  the  South  Carolina  states- 
man whose  principles  they  imagined  they  were 
putting  in  operation. 
By  far  the  most  important  witness  for  the 
Government  was  Horace  HefTren,  a  lawyer 
of  Salem,  Indiana,  a  man  high  in  the  councils 
of  the  order.  He  was  indicted  for  treasonable 
practices,  and  concluded  to  make  a  clean  breast 
of  it.4  He  gave  an  apparently  truthful  account : 
detailed  the  scheme  for  forming  a  North- v 
ern  Confederacy,  or,  if  that  failed,  for  joining  the 
Southern  army  ;  the  State  Government  of  In- 
diana was  to  be  seized,  Governor  Morton  was 
to  be  held  for  a  hostage  or  killed.  He  confirmed 
the  story  of  the  general  uprising  which  was  to 
have  taken  place  on  the  16th  of  August  in 
conjunction  with  a  rebel  raid  from  Cumberland 
Gap,  the  great  feature  of  which  was  the  lib- 
eration of  the  Confederate  prisoners  in  Illinois. 
Ohio,  and  Indiana.  But  when  the  time  came 
the  rebels  did  not,  and  the  conspirators  lacked 
heart  for  the  fight.  Vallandigham,  the  supreme 
head  of  the  order,  was  too  far  away  for  intel- 
ligent and  efficient  direction.  The  whole 
conspiracy  was  shabby  and  puerile,  although 
it  included  many  editors  and  politicians  of 
local  standing.  They  were  not  all  cravens : 
some  of  them  stood  up  stoutly  before  the  mil- 
itary commission  and  defended  the  cause  of 
the  South.  "I  assert."  said  one.  "that  the 
South  has  been  fighting  for  their  rights  as  de- 
fined in  the  Dred  Scott  decision."  B  But  there 
was  very  little  display  of  heroism  when  the  time 
of  trial  arrived.  There  was  much  that  was  ig- 
noble and  sordid :  a  scramble  for  the  salaried 
places,  a  rush  to  handle  the  money  provided 
for  arms ;  one  man  intriguing  for  a  place  on  the 
staff"  because  he  had  a  sore  leg  "  :  a  cloud  oi 
small  politicians,  who  hardly  knew   whether
554 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
they  were  members  or  not ;  M  they  had  heard 
a  ritual  read,  but  paid  little  attention  to  it " ; 
they  were  anxious  to  be  members  if  the  scheme 
succeeded,  and  to  avoid  the  law  if  it  failed. 
The  President's  attitude  in  regard  to  this 
organization  was  one  of  good-humored  con- 
tempt rather  than  anything  else.  Most  of  the 
officers  commanding  departments,  however, 
regarded  the  machinations  of  these  dark-lan- 
tern knights  as  a  matter  of  the  deepest  import. 
Governor  Morton  was  greatly  disquieted  by 
their  work  in  his  State,  and  sent  a  telegram  to 
the  President  in  January,  1S63,1  expressing  his 
fear  that  the  legislature,  when  it  met,  would 
pass  a  joint  resolution  to  acknowledge  the 
Southern  Confederacy  and  urge  the  North-west 
to  dissolve  all  constitutional  relation  with  the 
Xew  England  States.  But  when  the  legislature 
came  together,  although  it  evinced  a  hearty 
good- will  in  giving  the  governor  all  the  worry 
and  annoyance  possible,  it  took  no  such  overt 
step  of  treason  as  he  feared. 
Their  action  was,  indeed,  sufficiently  violent 
and  contumacious.  The  House  of  Represent- 
atives insolently  returned  his  message  to  him 
and  passed  a  resolution  accepting  in  its  stead 
that  of  the  Democratic  governor  of  New  York. 
Measures  were  introduced  to  take  the  military 
power  of  the  State  away  from  the  governor 
and  to  confer  it  upon  the  Democratic  State 
officers.  To  defeat  these  unconstitutional  pro- 
ceedings the  Republicans  adopted  the  equally 
irregular  course  of  abandoning  the  legislature 
and  leaving  it  without  a  quorum;  in  conse- 
quence of  which  no  appropriation  bills  were 
passed,  and  the  governor  had  to  appeal  to  the 
people  of  the  State  for  means  to  carry  on  the 
government.  These  were  furnished  in  part  by 
the  voluntary  offerings  of  banks,  private  cor- 
porations, and  individuals ;  but  needing  a 
quarter  of  a  million  dollars  for  an  emergency, 
he  came  to  Washington  and  obtained  it  from 
the  General  Government,  by  virtue  of  a  statute 
of  July  31,  1861,  which  set  aside  two  millions 
for  the  purchase  of  munitions  of  war  to  be  used 
in  States  in  rebellion  or  "  in  which  rebellion  is  or 
may  be  threatened."  In  view  of  the  revolution- 
ary attitude  of  the  legislature,  and  the  known 
treasonable  organization  and  purposes  of  the 
Sons  of  Liberty,  the  Secretary  of  War  decided 
that  Indiana  was  so  "  threatened,"  and  made 
Governor  Morton  a  disbursing  officer  to  the 
amount  of  250,000  dollars.  It  is  related  that 
Morton  remarked,  as  he  took  the  warrant,  "  If 
the  cause  failed,  they  would  be  called  heavily 
to  account  for  this";  to  which  Stanton  replied, 
"  If  the  cause  fails,  I  do  not  wish  to  live."2 
1  Morton  to  Stanton,  Jan.  3,  1863. 
2  Henry  Wilson.  Article  E.  M.  Stanton, '-'Atlantic 
Monthly,"  February,  1870. 
?>  Rosecrans  to  Lincoln,  June  22,   18G4.   MS. 
General  Rosecrans,  commanding  in  Mis- 
souri, was  thrown  into  something  like  panic 
by  the  doings  of  the  Knights,  and  Governor 
Yates  of  Illinois  shared  fully  in  his  trepida- 
tion. In  June,  1864,  the  governor  and  the 
general  joined  in  an  earnest  demand  that  the 
President  should  order  Colonel  Sanderson,  of 
Rosecrans's  staff,  to  Washington  for  a  personal 
interview  upon  matters  of  overwhelming  im- 
portance. The  President  was  unwilling  that 
either  Rosecrans  or  his  subordinate  should 
come  to  Washington  upon  this  errand,  under 
the  temptation  to  magnify  his  office  by  alarm- 
ing reports.  He  therefore  concluded  to  send 
one  of  his  own  private  secretaries  to  St.  Louis 
to  see  precisely  what  were  the  facts  which  had 
thrown  the  general  commanding  into  such  a 
state  of  consternation.  Rosecrans  then  re- 
peated the  entire  story  of  the  organization 
of  the  order  of  American  Knights  and  the 
Golden  Circle,  facts  which  were  already  well 
known  to  the  President  and  the  Secretary 
of  War ;  but  the  immediate  cause  of  his  ex- 
citement was  the  expected  return  of  Yallan- 
digham,  which,  he  said,  was  in  accordance  with 
the  resolution  adopted  by  the  order  at  the  con- 
vocation held  in  Windsor,  Canada.  General 
Rosecrans  thought  that  his  return  would  be  the 
signal  for  the  rising  of  the  Knights  throughout 
the  North-west,  and  for  serious  public  disorders. 
The  President,  on  receiving  his  secretary's 
report,  declined  to  order  Sanderson  to  Wash- 
ington; and  in  reference  to  Rosecrans's  strict 
injunctions  of  secrecy  he  said  that  a  secret  con- 
fided on  the  one  side  to  half  a  million  Demo- 
crats, and  on  the  other  to  five  governors  and 
their  staffs,  was  hardly  worth  keeping.  He  said 
the  Northern  section  of  the  conspiracy  merited 
no  special  attention,  being  about  an  equal 
mixture  of  puerility  and  malice. 
General  Rosecrans,  after  he  was  convinced 
that  the  President  would  not  overrule  the  Sec- 
retary of  War  by  ordering  Colonel  Sanderson  to 
Washington,  concluded  at  last  to  send  his  vo- 
luminous report  in  manuscript,  accompanying 
it  with  the  following  letter,  which  we  copy  as  giv- 
ing in  few  words  the  results  of  his  researches :  3 
Since  Major  Hay's  departure,  bearing  my  letter 
about  the  secret  conspiracy  we  have  been  tracing- 
out,  we  have  added  much  information  of  its  Southern 
connexions,  operations,  uses,  and  intentions. 
We  have  also  found  a  new  element  in  its  work- 
ings under  the  name  of  McClellan  minute  men. 
The  evident  extent  and  anti-national  purposes  of 
this  great  conspiracy  compel  me  to  urge  the  con- 
sideration of  what  aught  to  be  done  to  anticipate  its 
workings  and  prevent  the  mischief  it  is  capable  of 
producing  again  upon  your  attention. 
Therefore,  I  have  sent  the  report  of  Colonel  San- 
derson with  the  details  of  evidence  covering  a  thou- 
sand pages  of  foolscap,  by  himself,  to  be  carried  or 
forwarded  to  you  by  safe  hands.
CONSPIRACIES  IN  THE  NORTH. 
555 
That  report  and  its  accompanying  papers  show, 
i .  That  there  exists  an  oath-bound  secret  so- 
ciety, under  various  names  but  forming  one  brother- 
hood both  in  the  rebel  and  loyal  States,  the  objects 
of  which  are  the  overthrow  of  the  existing  national 
Government  and  the  dismemberment  of  this  nation. 
2.  That  the  secret  oaths  bind  these  conspirators 
to  revolution  and  all  its  consequences  of  murder, 
arson,  pillage,  and  an  untold  train  of  crimes,  in- 
cluding assassination  and  perjury,  under  the  penalty 
of  death  to  the  disobedient  or  recusant. 
3.  That  they  intend  to  operate  in  conjunction 
with  rebel  movements  this  summer  to  revolution- 
ize the  loyal  States,  if  they  can. 
4.  That  Vallandigham  is  the  Supreme  Com- 
mander of  the  Northern  wing  of  this  society,  and 
General  Price,  of  the  rebel  army,  the  Supreme  Com- 
mander of  the  Southern  wing  of  the  organization. 
And  that  Vallandigham's  return  was  a  part  of  the 
programme  well  understood  both  North  and  South, 
by  which  the  revolution  they  propose  was  to  be  in- 
augurated. 
5.  That  this  association  is  now  and  has  been 
the  principal  agency  by  which  spying  and  supply- 
ing rebels  with  means  of  war  are  carried  on,  between 
the  loyal  and  rebel  States,  and  that  even  some  of 
our  officers  are  engaged  in  it. 
.  6.  That  they  claim  to  have  25,000  members  in 
Missouri,  140,000  in  Illinois,  100,000  in  Indiana, 
80,000  in  Ohio,  70,000  in  Kentucky,  and  that  they 
are  extending  through  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Penn- 
sylvania, Delaware,  and  Maryland. 
Besides  which  prominent  and  general  facts,  the 
names  of  members,  mode  of  operating,  and  other 
details  appear  fully,  showing  what  a  formidable 
power  and  what  agencies  for  mischief  we  have  to 
deal  with. 
With  this  synopsis  of  the  report  it  is  respectfully 
submitted  with  the  single  remark  —  that  what- 
ever orders  you  may  deem  best  to  give,  it  must  be 
obvious  to  your  Excellency  that  leading  conspira- 
tors like  Chas.  L.  Hunt  and  Dr.  Shore  of  St.  Louis, 
arrested  for  being  implicated  in  the  association,  can- 
not be  released  without  serious  hazard  to  the  public 
welfare  and  safety. 
From  first  to  last  these  organizations  were 
singularly  lacking  in  energy  and  initiative.  The 
only  substantial  harm  they  did  was  in  encourag- 
ing desertions  and  embarrassing  and  resisting 
the  officers  concerned  in  the  enrollment  and 
the  draft.  The  toleration  with  which  the  Presi- 
dent regarded  them,  and  the  immunity  which 
he  allowed  them  in  their  passive  treason,  arose 
from  the  fact  that  he  never  could  be  made  to 
believe  that  there  was  as  much  crime  as  folly 
in  their  acts  and  purposes.  Senator  McDonald 
reports  that  the  President  once  said  to  him 
when  he  was  asking  the  pardon  of  some  of 
these  conspirators  condemned  by  military  com- 
mission, "  Nothing  can  make  me  believe  that 
one  hundred  thousand  Indiana  Democrats  are 
disloyal."  They  were  sufficiently  disloyal  to 
take  all  manner  of  oaths  against  the  Govern- 
ment ;  to  be  ready  in  their  secret  councils  to 
declare  they  were  ready  to  shed  the  last  drop 
of  their  blood  to  abolish  it;  to  express  their 
ardent  sympathy   with   its  enemies  and   their 
detestation  of  its  officers  and  supporters.    But 
this  was  the  limit  of  their  criminal   COU1 
Shedding    the  last  drop  of  one's  blood 
comparatively  easy  sacrifice — it  U  shedding 
the  first  drop  that  costs;  and  these  rural  Cata- 
lines  were  never  quite  ready  to  risk  their 
for  their  so-called  principles.    All  the  atterj 
against    the  public  peace   in    the  free  States 
and  on  the  Northern  border  proceeded  not 
from  the  resident  conspirators,  but  from 
perate  Southern   emissaries    and    their  ai< 
and   abettors    in    the  British    provinces,  and 
even    these    rarely    rose   above    the    level    of 
ordinary  arson  and  highway  robbery. 
The  case  of  the  Chesapeake  was  one  of  the 
most  noteworthy  of  these  incidents.  Two 
Canadians  named  Braine  and  Parr  resolved, 
in  the  latter  part  of  1863,  to  start  on  a  privateer- 
ing enterprise  on  their  own  account.  Parr, 
though  born  in  Canada,  had  lived  for  several 
years  in  Tennessee;  and  Braine,  who  had  been 
arrested  and  confined  in  Fort  Warren,  had 
been  released  from  that  prison  on  his  claim, 
presented  by  the  British  minister,  that  he  was  a 
British  subject.  Their  sole  pretension  to  Con- 
federate nationality  was  the  possession  of  com- 
missions in  the  Confederate  navy  prepared  ad 
hoc.  They  enlisted  a  dozen  men,  all  British  sub- 
jects, and  purchased  in  New  York  the  arms  and 
equipment  they  required  for  their  enterprise, 
and  took  passage  on  board  the  United  States 
merchant  steamer  Chesapeake,  which  left  New 
York  on  the  5th  of  December,  bound  for  Port- 
land, Maine.  On  the  morning  of  the  8th  they 
assaulted  the  officers  and  crew  of  the  Chesa- 
peake, capturing  her  after  a  struggle  of  only  a 
few  minutes'  duration,  killing  one  and  wound- 
ing two  of  her  officers.1  They  took  the 
Chesapeake  into  the  Bay  of  Fundy  and  there 
delivered  her  into  the  hands  of  a  man  calling 
himself  Captain  Parker  of  the  Confederate 
navy,  who  afterwards  turned  out  to  be  an 
Englishman  whose  name  was  Yernon  Locke, 
and  who  had  come  out  in  a  pilot  boat  to  meet 
her.  Feeling  now  secure  in  the  possession 
of  her  new  nationality,  she  went  to  Sambro 
Harbor,  Nova  Scotia,  to  receive  the  fuel  and 
supplies  necessary  to  enable  her  to  prosecute 
her  voyage  to  the  Confederate  States.  While 
she  lay  there,  the  United  States  gun-boat  El/a 
and  Annie  entered  the  harbor;  and.  says  Mr. 
Benjamin,  whose  righteous  indignation 
evidently  aroused  by  the  proceedings.  "  with 
that  habitual  contempt  of  the  territorial  sover- 
eignty of  Great  Britain  and  of  her  neutral  rights 
which  characterizes  our  enemies.''  recaptured 
the  prize  and  left  the  British  port  with  the 
1  Benjamin  to  Holcombe,  Feb.  15,  1864.    MS.  Con- 
federate Archives.
556 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
purpose  oi  taking  the  Chesapeake  to  the  United 
States:  but  meeting  on  the  way  a  superior 
officer  of  the  United  States  navy,  the  captain 
of  the  Ella  and  Annie  was  ordered  by  him  to 
return  to  Halifax  to  restore  the  Chesapeake  to 
the  jurisdiction  of  Great  Britain.  This  was 
done,  and  the  few  pirates  who  had  been  cap- 
tured in  the  Chesapeake  were  delivered  up. 
The  case  was  taken  at  once  into  the  courts  and 
was  promptly  and  properly  decided,  so  far  as 
the  vessel  was  concerned,  by  her  delivery  to  her 
rightful  owners;  but  before  this  decision  was 
made  known  at  Richmond,  the  Confederate 
Cio  vernment,  seeing  in  the  case  a  possibility  of 
profit  to  their  cause,  dispatched  to  Halifax 
Professor  J.  P.  Holcombe,  said  to  be  the  most 
accomplished  international  lawyer  in  the  Con- 
federacy, to  take  charge  of  the  case.  During 
the  professor's  transit,  however,  by  wray  of 
Wilmington  and  Bermuda,  the  case  had  come 
to  its  natural  close,  and  on  arriving  at  Halifax 
he  found  his  occupation  gone.  He  was  com- 
pelled to  report  to  the  department  that  every 
man  concerned  in  the  capture  of  the  Chesapeake, 
with  the  single  exception  of  the  Canadian- 
Tennesseean  just  mentioned,  was  a  British  sub- 
ject.1 He  also  found  that  the  captors  had  been 
guilty  of  stealing  and  peddling  the  cargo  and 
pocketing  the  proceeds,  and  that  the  ante- 
cedents of  the  so-called  Confederate  officers 
involved  were  most  disreputable.  He  seemed 
greatly  disappointed  to  find  that  this  gang  of 
murderers  and  thieves  were  not  high-minded 
and  honorable  gentlemen,  and  therefore  con- 
cluded to  make  no  demand  upon  the  British 
authorities  for  the  restitution  of  the  stolen  ship. 
He  remained  for  some  time  in  Halifax  enjoy- 
ing the  hospitality  of  the  colonial  sympathizers 
with  the  South,  and  then  proceeded  to  join  the 
other  secession  emissaries  in  Canada  who  were 
engaged  in  equally  congenial  enterprises. 
The  principal  agent  of  the  Confederates  in 
Canada  was  Jacob  Thompson,  late  Secretary 
of  the  Interior  in  the  administration  of  Buch- 
anan, whose  dishonorable  administration  of 
that  important  office  has  already  been  men- 
tioned. He  had  sunk  into  appropriate  insig- 
nificance, even  among  his  own  associates,  after 
the  war  began ;  had  been  captured  by  General 
Grant  on  the  Mississippi  River  in  a  ridiculous 
attempt  at  playing  the  spy  under  a  flag  of  truce,2 
and,  after  being  released  with  contemptuous 
forbearance,  had  gone  to  Canada,  under  in- 
s'ructions  from  the  rebel  Government,  to  do 
what  damage  he  could  in  connection  with  the 
refugees  and  escaped  prisoners  who  fringed  the 
Northern  frontier  during  the  last  two  years  of 
the  war.  He  immediately  placed  himself  in 
communication  with  the  disloyal  Democrats 
of  the  Northern  States,  and  through  them  and 
a  band  of  refugees  who  at  once  gathered  about 
him  in  Canada  for  employment  began  a  series 
of  operations  which,  for  their  folly  no  less  than 
their  malignity,  would  be  incredible  if  they 
were  not  recorded  in  the  report  which  Thomp- 
son himself,  with  amazing  moral  obtuseness, 
wrote  of  his  mission  on  the  3d  of  December, 
1864.3  He  states  that  immediately  on  his  ar- 
rival in  Canada  he  put  himself  in  communi- 
cation with  the  leading  spirits  of  the  Sons  of 
Liberty.  He  was  received  among  them  with 
cordiality,  and  the  greatest  confidence  was 
extended  to  him.  They  became  convinced, 
during  the  summer  of  1864,  that  their  efforts 
to  defeat  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln  were 
hopeless.  "  Lincoln  had  the  power,"  he  said, 
"  and  would  certainly  reelect  himself,"  and 
there  was  no  hope  but  in  force.  The  belief 
was  entertained  and  freely  expressed  that  by  a 
bold,  vigorous,  and  concerted  movement  the 
three  great  North-western  States  of  Illinois, 
Indiana,  and  Ohio  could  be  seized  and  held. 
This  would  naturally  involve  the  accession  of 
Missouri  and  Kentucky  to  the  Confederacy, 
and  this,  in  sixty  days,  would  end  the  war.  It 
was  resolved  to  hold  a  series  of  peace  meetings 
in  Illinois  for  the  purpose  of  preparing  the 
public  mind  for  such  a  revolt.  The  first  of 
these  meetings  was  to  be  held  at  Peoria,  and 
"  to  make  it  a  success,"  says  Thompson,  "  I 
agreed  that  so  much  money  as  was  necessary 
would  be  furnished  by  me."  It  was  held,  and 
was  decidedly  successful.  But  he  pretends 
that  the  Niagara  Falls  conference  and  Lincoln's 
letter,  "  To  whom  it  may  concern,"  shook  the 
country  to  such  an  extent  that  the  leading 
politicians  conceived  the  idea  that  Lincoln 
might  be  beaten  at  the  ballot  box  on  such  an 
issue.  "  The  nerves  of  the  leaders,"  he  says, 
"  thereupon  began  to  relax."  The  seizure  of 
arms  at  Indianapolis,  the  arrests  of  leading 
supporters  at  Louisville,  the  unsympathetic 
attitude  of  Mr.  McDonald,  the  Democratic 
candidate  for  governor  of  Indiana,  all  tended 
to  discourage  the  ringleaders;  and  the  day 
fixed  for  the  revolt,  which  was  to  have  been 
the  1 6th  of  August,  passed  by  with  no  demon- 
stration. "The  necessity  of  pandering  to  the 
military  feeling  which  resulted  in  the  nomina- 
tion of  McClellan  totally  demoralized,"  says 
Thompson,  "  the  Sons  of  Liberty." 
Convinced  that  there  was  nothing  to  be  ex- 
pected from  the  cooperation  of  Northern  Demo- 
crats, Thompson  fell  back  once  more  upon  his 
gang  of  escaped  prisoners  and  other  loose  fish 
in  Canada.  The  next  scheme  adopted  by  him 
was  ingenious  and  audacious  and  not  without 
possibilities  of  success.  He  determined  to  cap- 
1  Holcombe  to  Benjamin,  April  I,  1864. 
2  "Personal  Memoirs  of  U.  S.  Grant,"  I.,  p.  462. 
?>  Thompson  to  Benjamin,  Dec.  3,  1864.    MS.  Con- 
federate Archives.
CONSPIRACIES  IN   THE   NO  A' 77/. 
557 
ture  the  war  steamer  Michigan,  plying  on  Lake 
Erie,  and  with  her  to  liberate  the  rebel  prisoners 
on  Johnson's  Island ;  the  prisoners  were  then 
to  march  upon  Cleveland,  attacking  that  town 
by  land  and  by  water,  and  thence  march  through 
Ohio  to  gain  Virginia.  A  man  named  Cole,  for- 
merly one  of  Forrest's  troopers,  was  sent  round 
the  lakes  as  a  deck  passenger  to  inform  him- 
self thoroughly  of  the  approaches  to  the  har- 
bors, the  depositories  of  coal,  the  stations  and 
habits  of  the  Michigan.  He  performed  his 
duty  with  energy  and  efficiency  and  with  great 
satisfaction  and  amusement  to  himself.  He  in- 
vented an  oil  corporation  of  which  he  was 
president  and  board  of  directors,  opened  an 
office  in  Buffalo,  and  used  a  good  deal  of 
Thompson's  money  in  making  the  acquaint- 
ance of  the  officers  of  the  Michigan.  The  1 9th 
of  September  was  the  day  fixed  for  the  attempt 
upon  the  Michigan,  Cole  having  contrived  to 
have  himself  invited  to  dine  with  the  officers 
of  the  vessel  on  that  day.  A  Virginian  named 
John  Yates  Beall  was  assigned  the  more  diffi- 
cult and  dangerous  part  of  the  enterprise.  He, 
with  twenty-five  Confederates,  took  passage 
from  Sandwich,  in  Canada,  on  board  the  Philo 
Parsons,  an  unarmed  merchant  vessel  plying 
between  Detroit  and  Sandusky;  they  were 
all  armed  with  revolvers,  and  had  no  trouble 
in  taking  possession  of  the  steamer  and  rob- 
bing the  clerk  of  what  money  he  had.  They 
soon  afterwards  fell  in  with  another  unarmed 
steamer,  the  Island  Queen,  scuttled  her,  and 
then  steered  for  Sandusky  Bay  to  join  Cole  and 
the  boats  he  had  prepared  in  an  attack  upon 
the  Michigan.  But  the.  plan  miscarried.  The 
military,  aware  of  Cole's  intentions,  had  cap- 
tured him;  and  Beall,  missing  the  signals  which 
had  been  agreed  upon,  did  not  dare  to  proceed 
in  the  enterprise  alone.  He  therefore  returned 
to  Sandwich,  and  his  crew  scattered  through 
Canada.  Beall  was  not  content  with  the  failure 
of  this  enterprise,  and  later  in  the  season,  in  the 
middle  of  December,  he  was  caught  in  the 
State  of  New  York  near  the  Suspension  Bridge 
in  an  attempt  to  throw  a  passenger  train  from 
the  West  oft  the  railroad  track  for  the  purpose 
of  robbing  the  express  company.1  This  was 
the  third  attempt  which  he  had  made  to  ac- 
complish this  purpose.  He  was  in  citizen's  dress, 
engaged  in  an  act  of  simple  murder  and  robbery, 
yet  he  imagined  that  the  fact  that  he  had  a 
Confederate  commission  in  his  pocket  would 
secure  him  against  punishment  in  case  of  cap- 
ture. He  was  tried  by  court  martial  and  sen- 
tenced to  death.  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis  took  the 
same  view  of  the  talismanic  character  of  the 
Confederate  commission  upon  which  Beall 
had  relied,  and  issued  a  manifesto  assuming 
1  General  Orders  No.  17,  Feb.  21,  1865.     Case  of 
J.  Y.  Beall. 
die  responsibility  of  the  act  and  declaring  that 
it  was  done  by  his  authority.   There  was  great 
clamor  in  regard  to  the  case,  and  mac 
of  all  parties  pleaded  with  Mr.  Lincoln  to  1 
mute  the  sentence  of  BealL   A  petition  ir. 
cause  was  signed  by   most  of  the  I  J- 
members  of  the  House  of  Representatives  and 
by  many  Republicans.    But  the  Judge-Advo- 
cate General  reported  that  "  Beall,  convicted 
upon  indubitable  proof  as  a  spy,  gucrrillero. 
outlaw,  and  would-be  murderer  of  hundre 
innocent  persons  traveling  in  supposed  security 
upon  one  of  our  great  thoroughfares,  full;. 
served  to  die  a  felon's  death,  and  the  summary 
enforcement  of  that  penalty  was  a  duty  which 
government  owed  to  society." 
Loath  as  Mr.  Lincoln  was  at  all  times  to 
approve  a  capital  sentence,  he  felt  that  in  this 
case  he  could  not  permit  himself  to  yield  to 
the  promptings  of  his  kindly  heart.  He  sent  a 
private  message  to  General  Dix,  saving  he  would 
be  glad  if  he  would  allow  Beall  a  respite  of  a 
few  days  to  prepare  himself  for  death,  but  : 
tively  declined  to  interfere  with  the  sentence. 
and  Beall  was  hung  in  the  latter  part  of  Febru- 
ary. The  Virginia  Senate  made  his  case  their 
own,  and  recommended,  by  resolutions  of  the 
3d  of  March,  the  adoption  of  such  steps  as 
might  be  necessary  in  retaliation  for  the  offense 
committed  by  the  authorities  of  the  Ui 
States. 
Under  Thompson's  orders  the  large  prison 
camps  in  the  North  had  been  thoroughly  ex- 
amined with  a  view  of  effecting  the  release  of 
the  Confederate  prisoners  confined  in  them. 
But  the  attempts  at  different  places  were  given 
up  for  one  reason  or  another,  and  it  was 
solved  to  concentrate  all  the  efforts  of  the  con- 
spirators upon  Camp  Douglas  at  Chicago.    A 
large  number  of  rebels  and  their  sympathizers 
were  gathered  together  in  that  city,  and  the  plan 
for  taking  the  prison  camp  with  its  ten  thousand 
Confederate  prisoners  was  matured,  and 
to  have  been  put  into  execution  on  the  night 
of  election  day,  taking  advantage  oi  the  excite- 
ment and  the  crowds  of  people  in  the  sti 
to  surprise  the  camp,  release  and  arm  the  pris- 
oners of  war,  cut  the  telegraph  wires,  burn  die 
railway  stations,  and  seize  the  banks  and  stores 
containing    arms    and    ammunition.    It 
Jioped  that  this  would  excite  a  amultanc 
rising  of  the  Sons  of  Liberty  throughout  the 
State,  and  result  in  the  release  of  the  Con:. 
ate  prisoners  in  other  camps.    But  the  pi. 
usual,  was  betrayed  by  repentant  rebels  who 
were  in  the  most  secret  councils  of  the  conspira- 
tors.   Shortly  after  midnight  on  the  7th  ot  No- 
vember,  Colonel  Sweet,  commanding  Camp 
Douglas,  trapped  in  their  various  hiding-pla    -  - 
and  took  prisoners  all  the  leader^  of  the  con- 
templated attack,  among  them  Morgan's  ad-
558 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
jutant-general.  St.  Leger  Grenfell.  Colonel 
Marmaduke.  a  brother  of  the  rebel  general,  the 
commanding  officer  of  the  Sons  of  Liberty 
in  the  State,  and  several  other  officers  of  the 
rebel  army  who  were  escaped  prisoners.  In  one 
house  they  found  two  cartloads  of  revolvers 
loaded  and  capped,  two  hundred  stands  of 
muskets  loaded,  and  .1  large  amount  of  ammu- 
nition.1 
Mr.  Thompson  hesitated  at  nothing  which 
he  thought  might  injure  the  people  of  the 
United  States.  Any  villain  who  approached 
him  with  a  project  of  murder  and  arson  was 
sure  of  a  kindly  reception.  "  Soon  after  I 
reached  Canada."'  he  says.  "  a  Mr.  Minor  Ma- 
jor visited  me  and  represented  himself  as  an 
accredited  agent  from  the  Confederate  States 
to  destroy  steamboats  on  the  Mississippi  River. 
and  that  his  operarions  were  suspended  for 
want  of  means.  I  advanced  to  him  $2000  in 
Federal  currency,  and  soon  afterwards  several 
boats  were  burned  at  St.  Louis,  involving  an 
immense  loss  of  property  to  the  enemy.  .  .  . 
Money  has  been  advanced  to  a  Mr.  Churchill 
of  Cincinnati  to  organize  a  corps  for  the  pur- 
pose of  incendiarism  in  that  city.  I  consider 
him  a  true  man :  and  although  as  yet  he  has 
effected  but  little,  I  am  in  constant  expectation 
of  hearing  of  effective  work  in  that  quarter." 
Another  miscreant  of  the  same  type,  named 
Colonel  Martin,  who  brought  an  unsigned  letter 
from  Jefferson  Davis  to  Thompson,  expressed  a 
wish  to  organize  a  corps  to  burn  Xew  York  City. 
••  He  was  allowed  to  do  so,"  says  Mr.  Thomp- 
son. -  and  a  most  daring  attempt  has  been  made 
to  fire  that  city,  but  their  reliance  on  the  Greek 
fire  has  proved  a  misfortune.  It  cannot  be 
depended  on  as  an  agent  in  such  work.  I  have 
no  faith  whatever  in  it,  and  no  attempt  shall 
hereafter  be  made  under  my  general  directions 
with  any  such  material."  A  party  of  eight 
persons,  mostly  escaped  prisoners,  were  sent 
to  Xew  York  to  destroy  that  city  by  fire.  One 
of  them  named  Kennedy  was  captured,  tried, 
and  hung.  Before  his  execution  he  confessed 
that  he  had  set  fire  to  four  places :  Barnum's 
Museum,  Lovejoy's  Hotel,  Tammany  Hotel, 
and  the  Xew  England  House ;  "  the  others." 
he  said,  with  a  certain  sense  of  wrong.  "  only 
started  fires  where  each  was  lodging,  and  then 
ran  off.  Had  they  all  done  as  I  did,  we  would 
have  had  thirty-two  fires  and  played  a  huge 
joke  on  the  fire  department."  This  stupid  tool 
of  baser  men  escaped  to  Canada ;  but  relying, 
as  Beall  did,  on  his  commission  as  a  captain 
in  the  Confederate  army,  he  started  once  more 
for  the  Confederacy  by  way  of  Detroit,  and 
was  arrested  by  detectives  in  the  railway  sta- 
tion.   He  had  taken  on  a  new  name  and  a  new 
1  Colonel  Sweet's  report  to  General  Cook,  Nov.  7. 
1864. 
character ;  and  in  his  trial,  among  the  evidence 
he  brought  forward  which  he  thought  would 
insure  his  immunity,  was  a  pledge  given  to  the 
transportation  agent  in  Canada  to  return  with 
all  due  diligence  to  the  Confederacy.  Even 
after  his  sentence  he  had  no  realization  of  the 
crime  he  had  committed.  He  wrote  to  the 
President  arguing,  as  a  matter  of  law,  that  death 
was  too  severe  a  penalty  for  arson,  and  sug- 
gesting that  there  was  no  need  of  punishing 
him  as  an  example,  since  the  execution  of 
Beall  had  already  served  that  purpose. 
If  Mr.  Thompson  is  to  be  believed  it  would 
appear  that  his  adherents  in  Canada  were  not 
altogether  under  discipline,  and  that  they 
sometimes  took  the  opportunity  to  indulge  in 
occasional  burglaries  and  murders  on  their  own 
account.  He  said  in  his  official  report  that  he 
knew  nothing  of  the  St.  Albans  affair  until  after 
it  was  over.  This  was  a  crime  of  unusual 
atrocity,  and  bade  fair,  for  the  moment,  to  in- 
volve the  most  serious  consequences.  A  party 
of  Confederate  thieves,  some  twenty  or  thirty 
strong,  came  over  the  border  from  Canada 
on  the  19th  of  October,  and  entering  the  vil- 
lage of  St.  Albans  in  Yermont,  they  robbed 
the  banks  of  some  fifty  thousand  dollars,  ac- 
companying this  crime  with  entirely  uncalled 
for  cruelty,  firing  upon  the  unarmed  citizens, 
killing  one  man  and  wounding  three:  they 
also  burned  one  of  the  hotels  in  the  place. 
The  razzia  was  over  in  less  than  an  hour,  and 
the  band,  who  had  stolen  horses  enough  in 
the  vicinity  to  mount  them  all,  immediately 
returned  to  Canada.  It  seemed  at  first  as  if 
the  Canadian  authorities  intended  to  arrest 
the  criminals  and  hold  them  for  punishment. 
and  Mr.  Seward,  two  days  afterwards,  ex- 
pressed his  gratification  to  the  British  legation 
at  Washington  for  this  prompt  and  apparently 
satisfactory  proceeding.  As  it  turned  out,  how- 
ever, he  spoke  too  quickly,  for  Judge  Coursol 
discharged  the  criminals  from  custody  and  re- 
stored to  them  the  money  they  had  stolen.  As 
soon  as  this  intelligence  reached  Xew  York. 
General  Dix,  outraged  beyond  endurance  by 
the  iniquity  of  the  act,  without  consultation 
with  the  Government  issued  an  order  direct- 
ing all  military  commanders  on  the  frontier 
in  case  of  further  acts  of  depredation  and 
murder  to  shoot  down  the  murderers,  or  the 
persons  acting  under  commissions  from  the 
rebel  authorities  at  Richmond;  and  further 
instructing  them  that  if  it  should  be  necessary, 
with  a  view  to  their  capture,  to  cross  the  bor- 
der between  the  L'nited  States  and  Canada,  to 
pursue  them  wherever  they  might  take  refuge, 
and  on  no  account  to  surrender  them  to  the 
local  authorities,  but  to  send  them  to  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Department  of  the  East  for 
trial  and   punishment   by  martial  law.     The
LINCOLN  AND    THE    CHURCHES. 
559 
President,  who  felt  no  less  keenly  than  General 
Dix  the  wrong  and  outrage  committed  by  these 
rebel  murderers  and  the  Canadian  authorities 
who  seemed  to  be  protecting  them,  neverthe- 
less declined  to  allow  any  subordinate  to  em- 
broil the  country  with  a  foreign  nation  in  this 
way ; 1  and  in  spite  of  General  Dix's  vehement 
defense  of  what  he  called  "  the  right  of  hot 
pursuit,"  the  President  required  him  to  revoke 
the  instructions  quoted.  The  British  Govern- 
ment directed  Lord  Monck,  the  Governor-Gen- 
eral of  Canada,  to  be  guided  by  the  decision 
of  the  proper  legal  authorities  in  the  provinces 
whether  persons  in  custody  ought  or  ought 
not  to  be  delivered  up  under  the  treaty  of 
extradition,  saying  that  in  case  the  decision 
should  have  been  that  they  ought  to  be  de- 
livered, the  Government  would  approve  Lord 
Monck's  acting  on  this  decision;  and  in  case 
of  the  contrary  decision,  the  Government  sug- 
gested that  they  should  be  put  upon  trial  on 
the  charge  of  misprision  and  violation  of  the 
royal  prerogative  by  levying  war  from  her 
Majesty's  dominions  against  a  friendly  power. 
The  criminals  whom  Judge  Coursol  had  re- 
leased were  again  captured;  the  Canadian 
Parliament  reproved  the  action  of  Coursol  and 
suspended  him  from  office.  The  prisoners  hav- 
ing been  again  arrested,  the  matter  was  heard 
before  Mr.  Justice  Smith  of  Montreal,  who 
again  discharged  them,  on  the  ground  that 
Young,  the  ringleader  of  the  party,  bore  a 
commission  in  the  Confederate  army;-  that  Mr. 
Clement  C.  Clay,  an  associate  of  Thompson's 
as  Confederate  commissioner,  was  aware  of 
Young's  purpose  and  gave  him  a  check  for  four 
hundred  dollars  for  his  expenses.  "  The  attack 
on  St.  Albans,"  he  said,  "  must  therefore  be  re- 
garded as  a  hostile  expedition,  undertaken  and 
carried  out  under  the  authority  of  the  so-called 
Confederate  States  by  one  of  the  officers  of 
their  army."  The  prisoners,  he  held,  had  not 
acquired  any  domicile  in  Canada  nor  lost  their 
national  character  by  their  residence  there. 
The  Government  of  Canada  was  not  satisfied 
with  this  pettifogging  plea  and  again  arrested 
the  prisoners ;  but  the  war  having  now  come 
to  an  end,  the  case  was  languidly  prosecuted 
and  the  criminals  received  no  punishment.  The 
Canadian  authorities,  however,  desiring  to 
maintain  amicable  relations  with  the  United 
States  and  to  do  substantial  justice  in  the  case 
in  spite  of  the  courts,  refunded  the  fifty  thousand 
dollars  stolen  by  the  raiders,  and  an  attempt 
1  This  order  of  General  Dix  gave  great  satisfaction 
at  Richmond.  An  official  of  the  Confederate  War  De- 
partment entered  in  his  diary  December  19:  "Gen- 
eral Dix  orders  his  military  subordinates  to  pursue 
any  rebel  raiders  even  into  Canada  and  bring  them 
over.  So  light  may  come  from  that  quarter.  A  war 
with  England  would  be  our  peace." 
2  There  is  an  entry  in  "  A  Rebel  War  Clerk's  Diary," 
was  made  in  the  provincial  legMatUK  to  pass 
a  law  which  should  prevent  the  tettii 
of  such  unlawful  expeditions  fr        I         dian 
soil  in  the  future. 
LINCOLN   AN  I  j    JUL  CHI 
In  a  conflict  which  was  founded  upon  the 
quickened  moral  sense  of  the  people  H 
not  strange  that  the  Government  received  the 
most  earnest  support  from  the  churches.    From 
one  end  of  the  loyal  State-,  to  the  other  all  the 
religious  organizations,   with    few   except 
moved  by  the  double  forces  of  patriotism  and 
religion,  ranged  themselves  upon  the  side  of 
the  Government  against  the  rebellion.  A  I 
number  of  pulpits  in  the  North  had  already 
taken  their  places  as  tribunes  for  the  def 
of  popular  freedom,  and  it  was  from  them  that, 
at  the  menace  of  war,  the  first  cry  of  dai 
and  of  defiance  rang  out.  Those  minif 
who  had  for  years  been  denouncing  the  en- 
croachments of  slavery  did  not  wait  for  any 
organized  action  on  the  part  of  their  colleagues, 
but  proclaimed  at  once  in  a  thousand  var 
tones  that  peace  was  "  a  blessing  worth  fight- 
ing for."  The  more  conservative  churches  were 
but  little  in  the  rear  of  the  more  advanced. 
Those  who  had  counseled  moderation  and 
patience  with  the  South  on  account  of  the  di- 
vided responsibility  for  slavery  which  rested 
on  both  halves  of  the  nation  speedily  felt  the 
sense  of  release  from  the  obligations  of  brother- 
hood when  the  South  had  repudiated  and  re- 
nounced them,  and  rallied  to  the  support  of 
the  insulted  flag  with  an  earnestness  not  less 
ardent,  and  more  steadily  trustworthy,  than 
that  of  the  original  antislavery  clergy.  As  the 
war  went  on,  and  as  every  stage  of  it  gave  a 
clearer  presage  of  the  coming  destruction  of 
slavery,  the  deliverances  of  the  churches  be- 
came every  day  more  and  more  decided  in 
favor  of  the  national  cause  and  the  downfall 
of  human  bondage.  To  detail  the  thousand 
ways  in  which  the  churches  testified  their 
support  of  the  national  cause,  to  give  even 
an  abstract  of  the  countless  expressions  of 
loyalty  which  came  from  the  different  religious 
bodies  of  the  country,  would  occupy  many 
volumes  ;  we  can  only  refer  briefly  to  a  few  of 
the  more  important  utterances  of  some  of  the 
great  religious  societies. 
In  all  the  church  conventions  v^hich  met 
after  the  President's  preliminary  proclamation 
of  the  2  2d  of  September.  1S62,  that  act  of  liber- 
December  15,  which  would  indicate  that 
commission  was  spurious  or  prepared  afto 
"  A  letter  from  G.  X.  Sanders  .  .  .  asks  copies  of 
orders,  to  be  certified  by  Secretary  of  War.  command- 
ing the  raid  into  Vermont,  the  burning,  pills  B     \ 
t  Lieutena  «i  [        v.    I  doubt  if  such  written 
orders  are  in  existence  — but  no  matter."
^6o 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
ation  was  greeted  with  the  heartiest  expressions 
of  approval  and  support.  The  Baptist  Con- 
vention oi  New  York  declared  that  "  While  we 
see  with  the  profoundest  sorrow  thousands  of 
husbands,  lathers,  brothers,  and  sons  falling  on 
the  battlefield,  considering  the  interests  to  be 
preserved  and  transmitted  to  future  genera- 
tions we  cannot  regard  the  sacrifice  of  treasure 
and  o(  life  too  much  for  the  object  to  be 
secured."  They  denounced  "  human  slavery 
as  the  procuring  cause  of  the  rebellion  nowr 
raging  among  us  " ;  they  declared  that  "  the 
spirit  of  the  age,  the  safety  of  the  country,  and 
the  laws  of  God  require  its  entire  removal." 
The  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union  had, 
in  the  spring  of  1862,  adopted  with  unanimity 
resolutions  characterizing  "  the  war  now  waged 
by  the  National  Government  to  put  down  the 
unprovoked  and  wicked  rebellion  that  has 
risen  against  us,  and  to  establish  anew  the 
reign  of  order  and  of  law,  as  a  most  righteous 
and  holy  one,  sanctioned  alike  by  God  and  all 
right-thinking  men";  expressing  their  opinion 
that  "  the  principal  cause  and  origin  of  this  at- 
tempt to  destroy  the  Government  has  been  the 
institution  of  slavery,"  and  that  a  safe,  solid,  and 
lasting  peace  could  not  be  expected  short  of 
its  complete  overthrow.  The  next  year  they 
declared  that  the  developments  of  the  past 
year  had  only  tended  to  deepen  their  convic- 
tion of  these  truths,  which  they  solemnly  reit- 
erated and  affirmed.  They  referred  to  the  "  fatal 
and  suicidal  blows  "  inflicted  upon  slavery  by 
the  slaveholders'  rebellion,  and  said  that  "  for 
thus  overruling  what  appeared  at  first  to  be 
a  terrible  national  calamity,  to  the  production 
of  results  so  unexpected  and  glorious,  their 
gratitude  and  adoration  are  due  to  that  wonder- 
working God  who  still  maketh  the  wrath  of 
men  to  praise  him,  while  the  remainder  of 
wrath  he  restrains."  They  approved  the 
President's  proclamation  and  the  acts  of  Con- 
gress abolishing  slavery  in  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia and  the  Territories,  and  hailed  the  dawn 
of  that  glorious  day  when  "  liberty  shall  be  pro- 
claimed throughout  all  the  land  unto  all  the 
inhabitants  thereof."  In  severe  and  dignified 
language  they  expressed  their  gratitude  for 
whatever  measure  of  sympathy  they  had  re- 
ceived from  abroad,  but  at  the  same  time  de- 
clared that  the  United  States  asked  no  assist- 
ance from  other  nations,  and  would  brook  no 
intervention  or  interference.  In  October,  1864, 
at  a  meeting  of  the  American  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions,  in  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  the 
venerable  Albert  Barnes  was  granted  leave  to 
introduce,  without  reference  to  a  committee,  a 
series  of  resolutions  expressing  the  hearty  sym- 
pathy of  the  Board  in  the  efforts  to  suppress 
the  rebellion ;  hoping  for  the  deliverance  of 
the  world  from  the  oppression  of  slavery ;  and 
gratefully  acknowledging  "  the  divine  inter- 
position in  the  success  which  has  attended  the 
arms  of  the  nation  as  an  indication  that  we 
shall  again  be  one  people,  united  under  one 
glorious  Constitution,  united  in  our  efforts  to 
spread  the  Gospel  around  the  world."  These 
resolutions  were  adopted  unanimously  with 
great  enthusiasm,  the  audience  rising  to  their 
feet  and  singing  the  national  anthem. 
The  State  conferences  of  the  Congregational 
churches  passed  similar  resolutions  from  time 
to  time.  As  a  specimen  of  all  we  give  an  ab- 
stract of  the  resolutions  of  the  Conference  of 
Massachusetts  in  1864.  "The  chief  hope  of 
rebellion  is  in  the  sympathy  and  distraction 
of  a  divided  North,  and  the  surest  and  shortest 
way  to  peace  is  not  to  recall  our  armies  and  to 
relax  our  grasp  upon  the  enemy,  but  to  pre- 
sent a  united  and  loyal  front  and  an  uncon- 
querable determination  to  prosecute  the  war 
till  the  power  of  the  Government  meets  no 
longer  armed  resistance."  They  disclaim  any 
feeling  of  despondency  or  of  impatience,  "be- 
lieving that  God  is  on  our  side,"  and  interpret 
hopefully  the  divine  delays  which  have  "  led 
to  more  and  more  radical  and  precious  reso- 
lutions and  deliverances,"  and  assert  roundly 
and  with  undaunted  courage  that  "  there  can 
be  no  effectual  reestablishment  of  the  national 
authority  by  any  negotiation  which  confesses 
the  inability  of  the  Government  to  subdue  re- 
bellion by  force  of  arms  and  proposes  terms 
of  peace  to  rebels  still  flying  the  flag  of  defi- 
ance." 
It  was  not  only  in  New  England  that  the 
Congregational  churches  maintained  this  stern 
and  patriotic  attitude.  The  General  Associa- 
tion of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Pennsyl- 
vania came  boldly  forward  in  the  autumn  of 
1864,  and,  discarding  all  pretenses  of  non- 
partisanship  or  neutrality,  declared  for  the 
reelection  of  Mr.  Lincoln  in  these  unqualified 
words : 
As  the  momentous  issues  of  this  long  and  deadly 
contest  are  approaching  their  solution  in  a  combined 
struggle  in  the  field  and  at  the  polls,  we  will  sustain 
with  our  votes  the  brave  and  noble  men  who  are 
defending  our  liberties  with  their  lives,  and  will  ani- 
mate our  fellow-citizens  by  every  consideration  of 
religious  hope  and  duty,  of  devotion  to  country  and 
to  .liberty,  to  make  the  decision  of  the  people  on  the 
8th  of  November  final  and  fatal  to  the  hopes  of 
traitors  in  arms  and  conspirators  in  political  councils. 
Our  hopes  for  the  preservation  of  our  liberties  as  a 
nation,  and  for  the  complete  emancipation  of  the 
African  race  in  the  South,  depend,  under  God,  upon 
sustaining  the  Government  in  upholding  the  integ- 
rity of  the  Union  throughout  all  the  trials  and  doubts 
of  the  war,  and  in  that  policy  which  looks  to  the 
abandonment  of  slavery  as  the  condition  of  perma- 
nent union  and  peace. 
The  German  Reformed  Synod  passed  ear-
LINCOLN  AND    THE    CHURCHES. 
nest  resolutions  urging  upon  their  clergy  and 
laity  to  continue  to  labor  and  pray  for  the  suc- 
cess of  the  Government  in  its  efforts  to  sup- 
press the  rebellion,  and  to  restore  peace  and 
union.  These  resolutions  were  reiterated  from 
year  to  year  in  every  State  where  this  church 
had  an  organization  in  existence.  The  Lu- 
theran General  Synod  which  met  at  York  in 
1864  passed  resolutions  denouncing  slavery, 
setting  forth  "  the  necessity  of  its  forcible  sup- 
pression, the  righteousness  of  the  war  which  is 
waged  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  national  life,  and 
the  duty  of  every  Christian  to  support  it  by 
the  whole  weight  of  his  influence,  his  prayers, 
and  his  efforts."  The  Moravian  Synod  also 
denounced  slavery  and  considered  an  earnest 
support  of  the  Constitution  and  the  laws  a 
religious  duty,  and  expressed  its  willingness  "  to 
render  all  the  aid  in  its  power  to  subdue  un- 
righteous rebellion,  and  extend  the  rightful 
authority  of  the  Government  over  every  por- 
tion of  our  country." 
One  of  the  most  weighty  utterances  of  any 
religious  organization  during  the  war  was  that 
of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  the  United  States,  which  met  at 
Columbus,  Ohio,  in  the  spring  of  1862.  Im- 
portant as  was  this  deliverance  from  the  sanc- 
tion which  it  carried,  as  the  utterance  of  one 
of  the  most  considerable  religious  organiza- 
tions in  the  country,  it  was  no  less  significant 
as  the  work  of  the  Rev.  R.  J.  Breckinridge 
of  Kentucky,  who  held  a  position  second  to 
none  in  the  border  States  in  character,  in 
political  influence,  and  in  social  connections. 
This  remarkable  paper  began  with  the  praise 
of  peace,  but,  in  striking  contrast  to  the  many 
craven  pleas  based  upon  this  theme  during 
the  war,  it  threw  the  blame  of  the  violation  of 
peace  upon  the  disloyal  and  traitorous  attempt 
to  overthrow  the  National  Government  by 
military  force. 
This  whole  treason  [the  report  continues],  rebel- 
lion, anarchy,  fraud,  and  violence,  is  utterly  contrary 
to  the  dictates  of  natural  religion  and  morality,  and 
is  plainly  condemned  by  the  revealed  will  of  God.  It 
is  the  clear  and  solemn  duty  of  the  National  Gov- 
ernment to  preserve,  at  whatever  cost,  the  National 
Union  and  Constitution,  to  maintain  the  laws  in 
their  supremacy,  to  crush  force  by  force,  and  to  re- 
store the  reign  of  public  order  and  peace  to  the 
entire  nation  by  whatever  lawful  means  are  neces- 
sary thereunto.  And  it*  is  the  bounden  duty  of  the 
people  who  compose  this  great  nation,  each  one  in 
his  several  place  and  degree,  to  uphold  the  Federal 
Government  and  every  State  Government  and  all 
persons  in  authority,  whether  civil  or  military,  in 
all  their  lawful  and  proper  acts,  unto  the  end  herein- 
before set  forth. 
The  report  denounces  treason,  rebellion,  and 
anarchy  as  sinful,  and  gravely  deprecates  the 
1  onduct  of  the  Southern  synods  in  en 
them.    The  concluding  sectic 
We  record  our  gratitude  loG  :  revailing 
unity  of  sentiment  and  general  internal  peace  which 
have  characterized  the  Church  in  I  that 
have  not  revolted,  embracing  a  great  majority  of 
ministers,   congregations,    an.!  nder    our 
care.  It  may  still  be  called  with  emphasis  a  loyal, 
orthodox,  and  pious  church,  and  all  its  acts  and 
works  indicate  its  right  to  a  title  so  noble.  Let  a 
spirit  of  quietness,  o!  mutual  forbearance,  and  of 
ready  obedience  to  authority,  both  civil  a: 
astical,  illustrate  the  loyalty,  the  orthodoxy,  and 
the  piety  of  the  Church.'  ...  In  the  nan: 
by  the  authority  of  the  Lord  Jesus  we  earnest 
hort  all  who  love  God  or  fear  his  wrath  to  turn  a 
deaf  ear  to  all  counsels  and  suggestions  that  lead 
toward  a  reaction  favorable  to  disloyalty,  schism, 
or  disturbance,  either  in  the  Church  or  in  thecountry. 
In  all  these  respects  we  must  give  account  to  God 
in  that  great  day,  and  it  is  in  view  of  our  own 
dread  responsibility  to  the  Judge  of  quick  and  dead 
that  we  now  make  this  deliverance. 
This  austere  and  unqualified  declaration  of 
loyalty,  this  denunciation  of  a  treason  which 
was  at  that  hour  lifting  a  defiant  and  almost 
triumphant  head  through  a  great  part  of  the 
Union,  was  adopted  by  a  majority  which, 
under  the  circumstances,  is  surprising.  Two 
hundred  and  six  ministers  and  ruling  elders 
voted  for  it ;  only  twenty  voted  against  it : 
than  one  in  ten  failed  to  rise  to  that  height  of 
moral  and  political  duty.  The  keynote  thus 
early  set  governed  this  powerful  Church 
throughout  the  war.  Its  General  Assembly, 
meeting  at  Newark,  New  Jersey,  in  1S64. 
adopted  a  long  and  most  energetic  report, 
declaring  that 
the  time  has  at  length  come,  in  the  providence 
of  God.  when  it  is  his  will  that  every  vestige  oi 
human  slavery  among  us  should  be  effaced,  and  that 
every  Christian  man  should  address  himself  with 
industry  and  earnestness  to  his  appropriate  part  in 
the  performance  of  this  great  duty.  .  .  .  Under 
the  influence  of  the  most  incomprehensible  in: 
tion  of  wickedness,  those  who  are  most  deeply 
interested  in  the  perpetuation  of  slavery  have  taken 
away  every  motive  for  its  further  toleration. 
An  attempt  was  made  at  the  meeting  of  the 
Synod  of  Xew  York  to  censure  this  action  of 
the  General  Assembly  ot  the  Church,  but  it 
was  voted  down  by  a  majority  of  six  to  one. 
The  General  Assembly  of  the  United  Pres 
terian  Church  passed  equally  strong  and  un- 
compromising resolutions : 
Believing  it  to  be  a  duty  especially  incumbent 
on  the  Church  to  let  her  light  shine,  we  trust  that 
all  the  preachers  of  the  Gospel,  of  every  denomina- 
tion, will  hear  and  obey  God's  voice,  now  calling 
upon  them  louder  than  ever  before  to  open  their 
mouth  in  behalf  of  the  dumb. 
The  Reformed  Presbyterian  Church,  com- 
monlv  called  the  M  Scotch  Covenanters."  a^
S62 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
dressed  the  President  by  committee  in  1862, 
beginning  with  the  proud  boast  that  "  this 
Church,  true  to  its  high  lineage  and  ancient 
spirit,  does  not  hold  within  its  pale  a  single  se- 
cessionist or  sympathizer  with  rebellion  in  these 
United  States."  They  congratulated  him  upon 
the  antislavery  measures  of  the  Government 
and  urged  him, 
by  every  consideration  drawn  from  the  Word  of 
God  and  the  present  condition  of  our  bleeding  coun- 
try, not  to  be  moved  from  the  path  of  duty  on 
which  he  has  so  auspiciously  entered,  either  by  the 
threats  or  blandishments  of  the  enemies  of  human 
progress,  nor  the  fears  of  timid  friends. 
Two    years   later   they   met  and  declared 
that  — 
It  is  the  duty  of  the  Church  of  Christ  to  encour- 
age and  sustain  the  Government  of  the  country  in 
:;11  that  they  do  for  the  honor  of  God,  the  freedom 
of  the  enslaved,  the  mitigation  of  the  inevitable 
evils  of  war,  and  the  preservation,  at  all  hazards, 
of  the  national  life,  integrity,  and  power. 
The  Xew  School  Presbyterians  also  lifted 
their  voice  with  equal  energy  and  clearness 
against  the  rebellion  and  in  favor  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. At  their  General  Assembly  each 
year  during  the  war  they  adopted  resolutions 
of  the  most  uncompromising  loyalty,  and  on 
several  occasions  addressed  the  President  per- 
sonally with  messages  full  of  ardent  devotion 
and  high  encouragement.    They  said : 
Since  the  day  of  your  inauguration,  the  thousands 
of  our  membership  have  followed  you  with  unceas- 
ing prayer,  besieging  the  throne  of  grace  in  your 
behalf.  .  .  .  When  we  look  at  the  history  of  your 
administration  hitherto,  and  at  the  wonderful  way 
in  which  the  people  have  been  led  under  your  guid- 
ance, we  glorify  God  in  you.1 
A  year  later2  they  embodied  their  sentiments 
of  loyalty  to  the  Union  and  opposition  to  slav- 
ery in  a  forcible  series  of  resolutions,  which 
were  brought  to  Washington  and  presented  to 
the  President  by  a  committee  of  which  Mr. 
John  A.  Foote,  a  brother  of  the  admiral,  was 
chairman.    The  President  replied : 
It  has  been  my  happiness  to  receive  testimonies 
of  a  similar  nature  from,  I  believe,  all  denomina- 
tions ot  Christians.  .  .  .  This  to  me  is  most  grati- 
fying, because  from  the  beginning  I  saw  that  the 
issues  of  our  great  struggle  depended  on  the  divine 
interposition  and  favor.  ...  As  a  pilot,  I  have 
used  my  best  exertions  to  keep  afloat  our  Ship  of 
1  Cincinnati,  May  22,1862.  McPherson,  "  History 
of  the  Rebellion,"  p.  469. 
2  Philadelphia,  May  27,  1863. 
3  In  an  address  delivered  by  Dr.  J.  P.  Newman  in 
New  Orleans,  March  23,  1864,  he  makes  this  well- 
founded  claim  :  "  The  Methodist  Church  has  been 
unanimous  and  zealous  in  the  defense  of  the  Union. 
Her  bishops,  her  ministers,  and  her  laity  have  nobly 
responded  to  the  call  of  their  country  in  this  hour  of  her 
peril.    The  voice  of  Simpson  has  been  heard  pleading 
State,  and  shall  be  glad  to  resign  my  trust  at  the  ap- 
pointed time  to  another  pilot  more  skillful  and  suc- 
cessful than  I  may  prove.  In  every  case  and  at  all 
hazards,  the  Government  must  be  perpetuated.  Re- 
lying as  I  do  upon  the  Almighty  Power,  and  en- 
couraged as  I  am  by  these  resolutions  which  you 
have  just  read,  with  the  support  which  I  receive 
from  Christian  men,  I  shall  not  hesitate  to  use  all 
the  means  at  my  control  to  secure  the  termination 
of  this  rebellion,  and  will  hope  for  success. 
Of  the  firm  and  loyal  attitude  of  the  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Church  this  resolution  of  the 
Convention  of  the  Diocese  of  Pennsylvania 
may  serve  as  an  example: 
We  hereby  declare  our  unfaltering  allegiance  to 
the  Government  of  the  United  States,  and  we  pledge 
it  our  willing  devotion  and  service;  and  as  a  body 
of  Christians  we  will  pray  that,  in  God's  own  time 
and  way,  this  rebellion  maybe  put  down;  that 
oppression  and  slavery  in  all  its  forms  may  be 
done  away  ;  that  freedom  of  body  and  mind,  politi- 
cal and  religious,  may  everywhere  prevail  ;  that  the 
emancipated  negroes,  whom  God  in  his  providence 
is  committing  to  our  care,  may  be  the  objects  of  our 
liberal  and  Christian  regard  and  instruction  ;  that 
war  may  soon  cease  throughout  all  our  borders, 
and  that  our  now  lacerated  country  may  again  be 
so  united  that  from  the  lakes  on  the  North  to  the 
gulf  on  the  South,  and  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific,  there  shall  be  one  Union,  one  Government, 
one  flag,  one  Constitution,  the  whoie  culminating 
in  that  higher  glory  which  shall  make  this  nation 
Emmanuel's  land — a  mountain  of  holiness  and  a 
dwelling-place  of  righteousness. 
No  church  was  more  ready  or  powerful  in  its 
support  of  the  Government  than  the  wide- 
spread Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  From 
the  beginning  it  took  ground  firmly  and  unani- 
mously for  the  national  cause;  the  Western 
armies  especially  were  filled  with  the  young 
and  vigorous  fighting  men  of  that  connection. 
To  a  committee  of  the  General  Conference  of 
1 864,  the  President  said : 
Nobly  sustained  as  the  Government  has  been  by 
all  the  churches,  I  would  utter  nothing  which  might 
in  the  least  appear  invidious  against  any.  Yet,  with- 
out this,  it  may  fairly  be  said  that  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  not  less  devoted  than  the  best,  is, 
by  its  greatest  numbers,  the  most  important  of  all. 
It  is  no  fault  in  others  that  the  Methodist  Church 
sends  more  soldiers  to  the  field,  more  nurses  to  the 
hospitals,  and  more  prayers  to  heaven  than  any 
other.  God  bless  the  Methodist  Church.  Bless  all 
the  churches,  and  blessed  be  God,  who  in  this  our 
great  trial  giveth  us  the  churches.3 
eloquently  for  the  union  of  the  country.  Ames,  as  pa- 
triotic as  wise,  has  not  hesitated  to  lend  his  aid  to  our 
unfortunate  prisoners  in  Richmond  and  to  give  his  sons 
to  the  army.  Janes  has  found  no  narrow  field  for  his 
philanthropic  heart  in  the  labors  of  the  Christian  Com- 
mission. All  our  church  papers  and  periodicals  have 
given  an  uncompromising,  zealous,  persistent  support 
to  the  Government,  and  have  thrown  the  whole  weight 
of  their  influence,  intelligent  as  it  was  potent,  on  the 
side  of  the  Union."
LINCOLN  AND   THE   CHURCHES. 
These  energetic  expressions  of  loyalty  were 
not  confined  to  the  Protestant  churches  alone. 
Archbishop  Hughes  in  New  York  gave  his 
great  personal  and  ecclesiastical  influence  to 
the  support  of  the  Government,  and  Arch  bishop 
Purcell  of  Cincinnati  took  occasion,  in  recom- 
mending the  observance  of  Thanksgiving  Day, 
1864,  to  his  people,  to  urge  upon  them  the 
cause  of  the  country. 
We  confess  [he  says]  that  it  has  greatly  pained 
us  to  hear  that  certain  rash,  irreverent,  and  thought- 
less men  of  our  communion  have  denounced  and 
abused  the  Government,  the  Administration,  and 
their  abettors.  Now  God  commands  us  to  bless,  and 
curse  not.  And  when  bad  men  cursed  the  supporters 
of  the  Government,  did  they  not  reflect  that  they 
cursed  the  more  than  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
Catholic  voters  and  Catholic  soldiers  of  our  army  who 
defend  that  Government  in  the  field?  Did  they  not 
reflect  that  its  downfall  would  be  hailed  with  ac- 
clamation by  our  own  hereditary  oppressors  across 
the  ocean  ?  Did  they  reflect  that  if  political  salvation 
'is  ever  to  reach  a  far-distant  and  beloved  island,  it 
must  come  to  it  from  these  United  States  which  they 
would  sever? 
"  The  Administration  did  not  commence 
this  war,"  the  archbishop  said,  and  went  on 
in  his  address  to  contrast  the  conduct  of  the 
National  Government  with  that  of  the  rebellion. 
It  is  time  [he  said,  in  conclusion]  that  all  should 
rally  around  the  powers  which  the  Apostle  com- 
manded us  to  obey,  and  thus,  presenting  an  undi- 
vided front  to  the  enemy,  reestablish  the  Union, 
without  which  there  can  be  no  panacea,  present  or 
prospective,  for  the  ills  we  suffer. 
The  Society  of  Friends  occupied  a  peculiar 
relation  to  the  war.  By  the  two  leading  tenets 
of  their  religion  they  were  drawn  in  different 
ways ;  they  were  intensely  opposed  both  to 
slavery  and  to  war.  While,  therefore,  they  were 
ready  to  favor  every  act  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  ad- 
ministration which  promised  to  abridge  the 
power  and  shorten  the  duration  of  slavery, 
they  were  placed  in  a  cruel  dilemma  when 
called  upon  to  take  part  in  the  only  measures 
by  which  the  country  could  be  preserved,  and 
the  predominance  of  a  government  based  upon 
slavery  prevented.  The  result  was  as  might 
readily  be  imagined.  Human  nature  asserted 
itself  in  the  midst  of  that  serious  and  tranquil 
communion  as  everywhere  else,  and  the  Friends 
acted  each  according  to  his  individual  bent. 
In  the  words  of  the  address  of  the  Yearly 
Meeting  of  1864: 
Many  of  our  young  men,  overcome  by  the  spirit 
of  war,  rushed  into  the  conflict  where  some  of  them 
found  an  early  death,  some  purchased  their  release 
from  the  draft  by  the  payment  of  money ;  others 
remained  steadfast  to  their  faith  in  the  hour  of  trial, 
thereby  subjecting  themselves  to  the  penalty  for 
desertion. 
Those  who  entered  the  army  illustrated  in 
their  plain  speech  and  quiet  1 1  irtna 
of  their  lineage  no  lest  than  those  irho,  r 
ing  to  bear  arms,  bore  uncomplainingly  all  that 
the  law  could  inflict  upon  them  by  n 
punishment    for    their    contumacy.     But 
Society,  as  a  body,  remained  outwardly  true- 
to  both  articles  of  its  creed  and  pTOte  I 
stantly  against  both  slavery  and  the  war  which 
it  caused.  The  Yearly  Meeting  of  1862  greeted 
with  hearty  approval  the  abolition  of  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  while  praying  that 
the  effusion  of  blood  might  be  stayed ;  and  that 
of  1864,  while  "appreciating   the  difficulties 
that  surround  those  upon  whom  re>t^  tl. 
sponsibility  of  guiding  the  nation  through  the 
awful  perils  of  civil  war,"  and   declining 
"  enter  into  judgment  with  those  who  differ 
from  them,  still   persisted  in    their    dignified 
petition  to  the  President  and  to  Congress  that 
they  might  not  be  compelled  to  offend  their 
own  consciences  by  complying  with  the  law- 
requiring  military  service. 
Mr.  Lincoln's  attitude  in  relation  to  thi> 
question  was  especially  delicate.  Himself  of 
Quaker  ancestry,  he  felt  a  peculiar  sympathy 
with  their  scruples,  and  yet  he  could  not  legally 
relieve  them  from  their  liabilities,  and  he  clearly 
perceived  the  impolicy  of  recommending  to 
Congress  any  specific  measure  of  relief.  He 
heard  and  answered  their  addresses  with  the 
greatest  patience  and  respect,  and  intervened 
with  his  prerogative  on  occasions  of  peculiar 
hardship.  We  owe  to  these  complications  two 
or  three  letters,  which  strikingly  exhibit  his 
quick  sympathies,  his  keen  sense  of  justice,  and 
his  profound  religious  feeling.  To  the  Quakers 
of  Iowa,  who  had  sent  him  an  address  through 
Senator  Harlan,  he  wrote : 
It  is  most  cheering  and  encouraging  for  me  to 
know  that  in  the   efforts  which  1  have  made,  and 
am  making,  for  the  restoration  o\  a  righteous  peace 
to  our  country,  1  am  upheld  and  sustained  by  the 
good  wishes  and  pravers  of  God's  people.    No  one 
is  more  deeply  than  myself  aware  that  without  his 
favor  our  highest  wisdom  is  but  as  foolishness,  and 
that  our  most  strenuous  efforts  would  avail  nothing 
in  the  shadow  of  his  displeasure.    It  seems  to  me 
that  if  there  be  one  subject  upon  which  all  g 
men  may  entirely  agree,  it  is  in  imploring  th. 
cious  favor  of  the  God  of  nations  upon  the  strugg 
our  people  are  making  for  the  preservation  o\  their 
precious  birthright  of  civil  and  religious  liberty. 1 
To  the  Quakers  of  Rhode  Island,  in  answer 
to  a  letter,  he  said  : 
Engaged  as  I  am.  in  a  great  war.  I  fear  it  will  be 
difficult  for  the  world  to  understand  how  fully  I  ap- 
preciate the  principles  of  peace  inculcated  in  this 
letter  and  everywhere  by  the  Society  of  Friends.9 
1  Lincoln  to  Iowa  Quakers.  Jan.  5. 1862.  I'npub.  MS. 
-  Letter  to  Dr.  S.  B.  Toby.  March  10. 1S62.  Lincoln, 
Unpublished  MS.
564 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
But  one  of  the  most  significant  of  the  Presi- 
dent's letters,  in  which  he  expresses  with  less 
than  his  usual  reserve  his  idea  of  the  moral 
and  religious  bearings  of  the  great  conflict, 
was  written  to  Mrs.  Gurney,  the  wife  of  the 
eminent  English  preacher  of  the  Society  of 
Friends,  in  the  autumn  of  1864.  It  shows  in 
a  singularly  touching  and  instructive  way  how 
the  ancestral  faith  of  the  Quaker  survived  in 
this  son  of  a  pioneer,  commander-in-chief  of 
a  million  of  men  engaged  in  one  of  the  most 
destructive  wars  of  modern  times  : 
My  Esteemed  Friend  :  I  have  not  forgotten  — 
probably  never  shall  forget  —  the  very  impressive 
occasion  when  yourself  and  friends  visited  me  on  a 
Sabbath  forenoon,  two  years  ago  ;  nor  has  your 
kind  letter,  written  nearly  a  year  later,  ever  been 
forgotten.  In  all,  it  has  been  your  purpose  to 
strengthen  my  reliance  on  God.  I  am  much  in- 
debted to  the  good  Christian  people  of  this  country 
for  their  constant  prayers  and  consolations,  and  to 
no  one  of  them  more  than  to  yourself.  The  pur- 
poses of  the  Almighty  are  perfect,  and  must  prevail, 
though  we  erring  mortals  may  fail  to  accurately  per- 
ceive them  in  advance.  We  hoped  for  a  happy  ter- 
mination of  this  terrible  war  long  before  this  ;  but 
God  knows  best,  and  has  ruled  otherwise.  We  shall 
yet  acknowledge  his  wisdom,  and  our  own  error 
therein.  Meanwhile  we  must  work  earnestly  in  the 
best  lights  he  gives  us,  trusting  that  so  working 
still  conduces  to  the  great  ends  he  ordains.  Surely 
he  intends  some  great  good  to  follow  this  mighty 
convulsion,  which  no  mortal  could  make,  and  no 
mortal  could  stay.  Your  people,  the  Friends,  have 
had,  and  are  having,  a  very  great  trial.  On  princi- 
ple and  faith,  opposed  to  both  war  and  oppression, 
they  can  only  practically  oppose  oppression  by  war. 
In  this  hard  dilemma,  some  have  chosen  one  horn, 
and  some  the  other.  For  those  appealing  to  me  on 
conscientious  grounds,  I  have  done,  and  shall  do, 
the  best  I  could  and  can,  in  my  own  conscience, 
under  my  oath  to  the  law.  That  you  believe  this  I 
doubt  not,  and  believing  it  I  shall  still  receive  for 
our  country  and  myself  your  earnest  prayers  to  our 
Father  in  heaven.  Your  sincere  friend, 
A.  Lincoln. 
The  most  important  agencies  through  which 
the  mingled  patriotism  and  religion  of  the 
country  lent  their  assistance  to  the  armies  of 
the  Union  were  the  Sanitary  Commissions  and 
the  Christian  Commission.  The  former  col- 
lected and  disbursed  not  less  than  $5,000,000 
in  cash  and  $9,000,000  in  supplies  for  the 
benefit  of  the  armies  in  the  field  and  the  sick 
and  wounded  in  the  hospitals,  while  the  Chris- 
tian Commission  raised  some  $4,500,000,  not 
only  for  this  purpose,  but  also  to  extend  to  the 
soldiers  the  benefits  and  consolations  of  religion 
in  cases  where  the  overworked  army  chaplains 
found  the  complete  fulfillment  of  these  offices 
beyond  their  powers.  The  Sanitary  Fairs 
throughout  the  country  were  remarkable  ex- 
hibitions of  the  patriotism  and  philanthropy 
of  the  people.    They  were  carried  on  to  a  great 
extent  by  the  women  of  the  country,  and  the 
quickening  of  the  national  spirit  by  these  con- 
certed efforts  was  of  more  importance  to  the 
Union  cause  than  even  the  vast  sums  of  money 
which  were  produced  ;  though  these  were  un- 
precedented in  the  annals  of  charity.  The  fair 
at  New  York  realized  $1,300,000,  nearly  all 
of  which  was  clear  profit.  On  every  great  bat- 
tlefield of  the  war,  even  before  the  thunder  of 
the  artillery  was  silenced,  the  trains  of  these 
great  organizations  were  upon  the  field  and 
their  members  were  engaged  caring  for  the 
wounded,  bearing  away  the  sick,  praying  with 
the  dying,  and  receiving  their  last  messages ; 
while  in  every  village  of  the  North  gentle  and 
patriotic  women  were  constantly  employed 
making  ready  the  stores  of  luxuries  and  deli- 
cacies dispensed  by  charitable  agents  at  the 
front. 
In  the  wrork  of  these  beneficent  agencies 
the  President  took  a  profound  interest.  He 
frequently  consulted  with  Dr.  Bellows  and  Mr. 
Stuart  as  to  the  best  means  of  carrying  on  their 
work.  Being  requested  to  preside  at  a  meeting 
of  the  Christian  Commission  held  in  Washing- 
ton on  the  2 2d  of  February,  1863,  he  wrote : 
While  for  reasons  that  I  deem  sufficient  I  must 
decline  to  preside,  I  cannot  withhold  my  approval 
of  the  meeting  and  its  worthy  objects.  Whatever 
shall  be,  sincerely  and  in  God's  name,  devised  for  the 
good  of  the  soldiers  and  seamen  in  their  hard  spheres 
of  duty  can  hardly  fail  to  be  blessed.  And  what- 
ever shall  tend  to  turn  our  thoughts  from  the  unrea- 
soning and  uncharitable  passions,,  prejudices,  and 
jealousies  incident  to  a  great  national  trouble  such 
as  ours,  and  to  fix  them  on  the  vast  and  long-endur- 
ing consequences,  for  weal  or  for  woe,  which  are 
to  result  from  the  struggle,  and  especially  to 
strengthen  our  reliance  on  the  Supreme  Being  for 
the  final  triumph  of  the  right,  cannot  but  be  well 
for  us  all.  The  birthday  of  Washington  and  the 
Christian  Sabbath  coinciding  this  year,  and  suggest- 
ing together  the  highest  interests  of  this  life  and  of 
that  to  come,  is  most  propitious  for  the  meeting 
proposed. 
The  cause  of  the  rebellion  was  adopted  and 
carried  on  by  the  churches  in  the  South,  if  not 
with  more  zeal  and  determination,  at  least  with 
greater  vehemence  at  the  beginning  than  was 
shown  by  the  religious  organizations  of  the 
North.  Even  before  the  war  began  the  State 
Convention  of  Baptists  in  Alabama x  made  haste 
to  rush  into  secession,  saying  that "  the  Union 
had  failed  in  important  particulars  to  answer 
the  purpose  for  which  it  was  created,"  and 
that  they  held  themselves  "  subject  to  the  call 
of  proper  authority  in  defense  of  the  sovereignty 
of  Alabama,  and  of  her  right  as  a  sovereignty 
to  withdraw  from  the  Union."  Several  of  the 
Presbyterian  Synods  of  the  South  went  head- 
long into  the  rebellion  before  the  close  of  the 
l  November,  i860.
LINCOLN  AND    THE    CLfUKCiniS. 
year  i860,  and  others  followed  their  example 
in  the  autumn  meeting  of  186 1.  They  formed 
their  General  Assembly  of  the  Southern  Con- 
federacy on  the  4th  of  December  of  that  year. 
Even  before  the  inauguration  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Convention  of  several 
States  formally  withdrew  from  the  Union,  and 
that  fiery  soldier-priest  Leonidas  Polk,  Bishop 
of  Louisiana,  commanded  the  clergy  to  shift 
their  public  prayers  from  the  President  of  the 
United  States  to  that  of  the  Confederate  States, 
and  announced  in  a  pastoral  letter  that  "  Our 
separation  from  our  brethren  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  of  the  United  States  has 
been  effected  because  we  must  follow  our 
nationality.  .  .  .  Our  relations  to  each  other 
hereafter  will  be  the  relations  we  now  both  hold 
to  the  men  of  our  mother  church  in  England." 
Unable  to  restrain  his  ardor  within  the  limits 
of  the  church  militant,  he  exchanged  his  crozier 
for  a  sword  and  died  by  a  cannon  shot  on  the 
'Georgia  hills. 
At  the  session  of  the  first  General  Council 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  at  Augusta 
an  address  was  adopted  congratulating  the 
Church  in  the  Confederate  States  upon  the 
unity  which  existed  in  its  councils,  upon  its 
promise  of  growth  and  expansion,  and  upon 
the  fact  that  the  leading  minds  of  the  new  re- 
public were  of  their  own  communion;  they 
called  upon  the  Church  to  make  strenuous  ef- 
forts in. behalf  of  the  slaves  of  the  South,  and 
gently  advocated  such  an  arrangement  of  their 
peculiar  institution  as  not  to  violate  the  right 
of  marriage  among  the  blacks.  "  Hitherto," 
they  say,  "  we  have  been  hindered  by  the  press- 
ure of  Abolitionists ;  now  that  we  have  thrown 
off  from  us  that  hateful  and  infidel  pestilence, 
we  should  prove  to  the  world  that  we  are  faith- 
ful to  our  trust,  and  the  Church  should  lead  the 
hosts  of  the  Lord  in  this  work  of  justice  and 
mercy."  Feeble  efforts  in  this  direction  were 
made  by  churches  in  other  communions  in  the 
South,  but  strong  opposition  was  at  once  de- 
veloped. In  the  Transylvania  Presbytery  it  was 
argued  that  "Though  the  matter  presented 
was  one  of  undoubted  grievance,  involving  a 
sin  which  ought  to  be  purged  away,  yet,  to 
prevent  agitation  in  the  Church  at  such  a  time 
of  intense  political  strife,  there  must  be  no  in- 
termeddling," and  a  resolution  in  favor  of  the 
solemnization  of  matrimony  among  slaves  was 
1  McPherson,  "  History  of  the  Rebellion,"  p.  54S. 
2  At  a  convention  of  loyal  ministers  and  laymen  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  held  at  Knoxville, 
August,  1864,  it  was  resolved  that  the  loyal  members 
of  the  conference  have  a  just  claim  to  all  the  church 
property;  that  they  really  constitute  the  Southern 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  within  the  bounds  of 
the  Holston  Conference;  that  they  propose,  at  the 
earliest  day  practicable,  to  transfer  the  same  to  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  ;  and 
laid  upon   the  tabic,  i> 
the  Presbytery  voting  against  it.1 
The   Methodist  Chinch  in  the  South  had 
separated  from  their  brethren  in  the  North 
fifteen  years  before  the  war  on  the  qUi 
slavery,  and  a  portion  of  their  <  lergy  and  laitv 
when  the  war  broke  out  natur.ii.  ed   in 
it  with  their  accustomed  zeal  ;   but  ti 
by  no  means  unanimous,  even  within  ti.- 
ing  States,  and  the  organization  was  virtually 
wrecked  by  the  \v;ir.- 
As  the  national  authority  began  to  be  r 
tablished  throughout  the  States  in  rebellion,  not 
the  least  embarrassing  of  the  questions  which 
generals  in  command  were  called  upon  to  decide 
was  that  of  the  treatment  of  church 
pastors  were  openly  or  covertly  disloyal  to  the 
Union.  There  was  no  general  plan  adopted 
by  the  Government  for  such  cases ;  in  fact,  it 
was  impossible  to  formulate  a  policy  which 
should  meet  so  vast  a  variety  of  circumstance- 
as  presented  themselves  in  the  different  re- 
gions of  the  South.  The  Board  of  Missions  of 
the  Methodist  Church  sent  down  some  of  their 
ablest  ministers,  with  general  authority  to  take 
charge  of  abandoned  churches,  and  to  estab- 
lish in  them  their  interrupted  worship.  The 
mission  boards  of  other  denominations  took 
similar  action,  and  the  Secretary  of  War :;  gave 
general  orders  to  the  officers  commanding  the 
different  departments  to  permit  ministers  of 
the  gospel  bearing  the  commission  of  these 
mission  boards  to  exercise  the  functions  of 
their  office  and  to  give  them  all  the  aid,  coun- 
tenance, and  support  which  might  be  practica- 
ble. But  before  and  after  these  orders  there 
was  much  clashing  between  the  military  and 
the  ecclesiastical  authorities,  which  had  its  rise 
generally  in  the  individual  temperaments  of 
the  respective  generals  and  priests.  There  was 
an  instance  in  one  place  where  a  young  offi- 
cer rose  in  his  pew  and  requested  an  Episcopal 
minister  to  read  the  prayer  for  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  which  he  had  omitted. 
Upon  the  minister's  refusal  the  soldier  ad- 
vanced to  the  pulpit  and  led  the  preacher, 
loudly  protesting,  to  the  door,  and  then  quietly 
returning  to  the  altar  himself  read  the  prayer — 
not  much,  it  is  to  be  feared,  to  the  edification 
of  the  congregation.  General  Butler  arrested 
a  clergyman  in  Norfolk,  and  placed  him  at 
hard  labor  on  the  public  works  for  disloyalty 
that  the  ministers  be  instructed  to  propose  to  their 
congregations  to  unite  cr.    masse  with  that   church. 
Their  report  states  "that  there  are  in  the  bour. 
the  Holston  Conference  120  preachers  known   to  be 
loyal,  and  40  others  supposed  to  be  true  to  the  Union : 
and  it  is  thought,  therefore,  that  the  work   of  ra 
struction  will  be  easily  accomplished."    [McPhers 
"History  of  the  Rebellion."  p.  540.] 
3  March  10, 1S64.    McPherson.  "  His  .Re- 
bellion." p.  522.
5oo 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
in  belief  and  action  :  but  the  President  reversed 
this  sentence  and  changed  it  to  one  of  exclusion 
from  the  Union  lines.1  The  Catholic  Bishop 
of  Natchez  having  refused  to  read  the  pre- 
scribed form  of  prayer  for  the  President,  and 
having  protested  in  an  able  and  temperate 
paper  against  the  orders  of  the  commanding 
general  in  this  regard,  the  latter  ordered  him 
to  be  expelled  from  the  Union  lines,  although 
the  order  was  almost  immediately  rescinded. 
General  Rosecrans  issued  an  order2  in  Mis- 
souri requiring  the  members  of  religious  con- 
vocations to  give  satisfactory  evidence  of  their 
loyalty  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
as  a  condition  precedent  to  their  assemblage 
and  protection.  In  answer  to  the  protestations 
which  naturally  resulted  from  this  mandate  he 
replied  that  it  was  given  at  the  request  of 
many  loyal  church  members,  both  lay  and 
clerical;  that  if  he  should  permit  all  bodies 
claiming  to  be  religious  to  meet  without  ques- 
tion, a  convocation  of  Price's  army,  under  the 
garb  of  religion,  might  assemble  with  impunity 
and  plot  treason.  He  claimed  that  there  was 
no  hardship  in  compelling  the  members  of  such 
assemblages  to  establish  their  loyalty  by  oath 
and  certificate,  and  insisted  that  his  order,  while 
providing  against  public  danger,  really  pro- 
tected the  purity  and  the  freedom  of  religion. 
In  the  course  of  these  controversies  between 
secessionist  ministers  and  commanding  gen- 
erals an  incident  occurred  which  deserves  a 
moment's  notice,  as  it  led  to  a  clear  and  vigor- 
ous statement  from  Mr.  Lincoln  of  his  atti- 
tude in  regard  to  these  matters.  During  the 
year  1862  a  somewhat  bitter  discussion  arose 
between  the  Rev.  Dr.  McPheeters  of  the  Vine 
Street  Church  in  St.  Louis  and  some  of  his 
congregation  in  regard  to  his  supposed  sym- 
pathies with  the  rebellion.  Looking  back  upon 
the  controversy  from  this  distance  of  time  it 
seems  that  rather  hard  measure  was  dealt  to 
the  parson ;  for  although,  from  all  the  circum- 
stances of  the  case,  there  appears  little  doubt 
that  his  feelings  were  strongly  enlisted  in  the 
cause  of  the  rebellion,  he  behaved  with  so  much 
discretion  that  the  principal  offenses  charged 
against  him  by  his  zealous  parishioners  were 
that  he  once  baptized  a  small  rebel  by  the 
name  of  Sterling  Price,  and  that  he  would  not 
declare  himself  in  favor  of  the  Union.  The 
difference  in  his  church  grew  continually  more 
flagrant  and  was  entertained  by  interminable 
letters  and  statements  on  both  sides,  until  at 
last  the  provost-marshal  intervened,  ordering 
the  arrest  of  Dr.  McPheeters,  excluding  him 
from  his  pulpit,  and  taking  the  control  of  his 
church  out  of  the  hands  of  its  trustees.  This 
action  gave  rise  to  extended  comment,  not 
1  Report  of  Judge-Advocate  General,  April  30, 1864. 
2  March  7,  1864.      3  Jan.  2,  1863.      4  Dec.  22,  1863. 
only  in  Missouri,  but  throughout  the  Union. 
The  President,  being  informed  of  it,  wrote3  to 
General  Curtis  disapproving  the  act  of  the 
provost- marshal,  saying,  in  a  terse  and  vigor- 
ous phrase,  which  immediately  obtained  wide 
currency,  "  The  United  States  Government 
must  not,  as  by  this  order,  undertake  to  run 
the  churches.  When  an  individual  in  a  church, 
or  out  of  it,  becomes  dangerous  to  the  public 
interest  he  must  be  checked;  but  let  the 
churches,  as  such,  take  care  of  themselves." 
But  even  this  peremptory  and  unmistakable 
command  did  not  put  an  end  to  the  discus- 
sion. Taking  the  hands  of  the  government 
away  from  the  preacher  did  not  quench  the 
dissensions  in  the  church,  nor  restore  the  pas- 
tor to  the  position  which  he  occupied  before 
the  war ;  and  almost  a  year  later  some  of  the 
friends  of  Dr.  McPheeters  considered  it  nec- 
essary and  proper  to  ask  the  intervention  of 
the  President  to  restore  to  him  all  his  ecclesi- 
astical privileges  in  addition  to  the  civil  rights 
which  they  admitted  he  already  enjoyed.  This 
the  President,  in  a  letter4  of  equal  clearness 
and  vigor,  refused  to  do.  "  I  have  never  inter- 
fered," he  said,  "  nor  thought  of  interfering,  as 
to  who  shall,  or  shall  not,  preach  in  any  church ; 
nor  have  I  knowingly  or  believingly  tolerated 
any  one  else  to  so  interfere  by  my  authority  " ; 
but  he  continues,  "If,  after  all,  what  is  now 
sought  is  to  have  me  put  Dr.  McPheeters 
back  over  the  heads  of  a  majority  of  his  own 
congregation,  that  too  will  be  declined.  I 
will  not  have  control  of  any  church  on  any 
side."  The  case  finally  ended  by  the  exclusion 
of  Dr.  McPheeters  from  his  pulpit  by  the 
order  of  the  presbytery  having  ecclesiastical 
authority  in  the  case. 
In  this  wise  and  salutary  abstention  from 
any  interference  with  the  churches,  which 
was  dictated  by  his  own  convictions  as  well 
as  enjoined  by  the  Constitution,  the  Presi- 
dent did  not  always  have  the  support  of  his 
subordinates.  He  had  not  only,  as  we  have 
seen,  to  administer  occasional  rebukes  to  his 
over-zealous  generals,  but  even  in  his  own 
Cabinet  he  was  sometimes  compelled  to  over- 
rule a  disposition  to  abuse  of  authority  in 
things  spiritual.  Several  weeks  after  he  had 
so  clearly  expressed  himself  in  the  McPhee- 
ters case,  he  found,  to  his  amazement,  that  the 
Secretary  of  War  had  been  giving  orders  virt- 
ually placing  the  army  in  certain  places  at 
the  disposition  of  a  Methodist  bishop  for  the 
enforcement  of  his  ecclesiastical  decrees.  He 
addressed  to  Mr.  Stanton  a  note  of  measured 
censure,5  which  was  followed  by  an  order  from 
the  War  Department  explaining  and  modify- 
ing the  more   objectionable  features  of  the 
5  "  After  having  made  these  declarations  in  good 
faith  and  in  writing,  you  can  conceive  of  my  embar-
LINCOLN  AND   THE   CHURCHES. 
former  document.  The  Secretary  explained 
that  his  action  had  no  other  intention  than  to 
furnish  "  a  means  of  rallying  the  Methodist 
people  in  favor  of  the  Union,  in  localities 
where  the  rebellion  had  disorganized  and  scat- 
tered them."  1  This  explanation  was  not  en- 
tirely satisfactory  to  the  President,  but  he 
thought  best  to  make  no  further  public  refer- 
ence to  the  matter.  Scarcely  was  this  affair  dis- 
posed of  when  a  complaint  was  received  from 
Memphis  of  some  interference  by  the  military 
with  a  church  edifice  there.  Mr.  Lincoln  made 
upon  the  paper  this  peremptory  indorsement : 
"  If  the  military  have  military  need  of  the 
church  building,  let  them  keep  it ;  otherwise, 
let  them  get  out  of  it,  and  leave  it  and  its 
owners  alone,  except  for  the  causes  that  justify 
the  arrest  of  any  one."  2  Two  months  later  the 
President,  hearing  of  further  complications  in 
the  case,  made  still  another  order,  which  even 
at  the  risk  of  wearying  the  reader  we  will  give, 
from  his  own  manuscript,  as  illustrating  not 
only  his  conscientious  desire  that  justice  should 
be  done,  but  also  the  exasperating  obstacles  he 
was  continually  compelled  to  surmount,  in  those 
troubled  times,  to  accomplish,  with  all  the  vast 
powers  at  his  disposition,  this  reasonable  desire. 
I  am  now  told  that  the  military  were  not  in  pos- 
session of  the  building ;  and  yet  that  in  pretended 
execution  of  the  above  they,  the  military,  put  one 
set  of  men  out  of  and  another  set  into  the  building. 
This,  if  true,  is  most  extraordinary.  I  say  again,  if 
there  be  no  military  need  for  the  building,  leave  it 
alone,  neither  putting  any  one  in  or  out  of  it,  except 
on  finding  someone  preachingor  practicing  treason, 
in  which  case  lay  hands  upon  him,  just  as  if  he 
were  doing  the  same  thing  in  any  other  building, 
or  in  the  streets  or  highways.3 
He  at  last  made  himself  understood  and 
his  orders  respected;  yet  so  widespread  was 
the  tendency  of  generals  to  meddle  with  mat- 
ters beyond  their  jurisdiction,  that  it  took  three 
years  of  such  vehement  injunctions  as  these 
to  teach  them  to  keep  their  hands  away  from 
the  clergy  and  the  churches. 
Lincoln  had  a  profound  respect  for  every 
form  of  sincere  religious  belief.  He  steadily 
refused  to  show  favor  to  any  particular  denom- 
ination of  Christians;  and  when  General  Grant 
issued  an  unjust  and  injurious  order  against 
the  Jews,  expelling  them  from  his  department, 
the  President  ordered  it  to  be  revoked  the 
moment  it  was  brought  to  his  notice.4 
He  was  a  man  of  profound  and  intense 
religious  feeling.   We  have  no  purpose  of  at- 
rassment  at  now  having  brought  to  me  what  purported 
to  be  a  formal  order  of  the  War  Department,  bearing 
date  November  30,  1863,  giving  Bishop  Ames  control 
and  possession  of  all  the  Methodist  churches  in  certain 
Southern  military  departments  whose  pastors  have 
not  been  appointed  by  a  loyal  bishop  or  bishops,  and 
ordering  the  military  to  aid  him  against  any  resistance 
tempting  to  formulate  his  <  ■  bob 
if  he  himself  ever  did 
swift  witnesses  who,  judging  frofl 
uttered  in  his  callow  youth,  have  called 
an  atheist,  and  others  who,  with  the  most  laud- 
able intentions,  have  remembered  improbable 
conversations  which  they  bring  forward  to 
prove  at  once  his  orthodoxy  and  their 
intimacy  with  him.  lint  leaving  aside  I 
apocryphal  evidences,  we  have  only  to  look 
at  his  authentic  public  and  private  utl 
to  see  how  deep  and  strong  in  all  the  latter 
part  of  his  life  was  the  current  of  his  religi 
thought  and  emotion.  Pie  continually  invited 
and  appreciated,  at  their  highest  value,  the 
prayers  of  good  people.  The  pressure  of  the 
tremendous  problems  by  which  he  was  sur- 
rounded; the  awful  moral  significance  of  the 
conflict  in  which  he  was  the  chief  combatant ; 
the  overwhelming  sense  of  personal  responsi- 
bility, which  never  left  him  for  an  hour — all 
contributed  to  produce,  in  a  temperament  nat- 
urally serious  and  predisposed  to  a  spiritual 
view  of  life  and  conduct,  a  sense  of  reverent 
acceptance  of  the  guidance  of  a  Superior 
Power.  From  that  morning  when,  standing 
amid  the  falling  snowflakes  on  the  railway  car 
at  Springfield,  he  asked  the  prayers  of  his 
neighbors  in  those  touching  phrases  whose 
echo  rose  that  night  in  invocations  from  thou- 
sands of  family  altars,  to  that  memorable  hour 
when  on  the  steps  of  the  Capitol  he  humbled 
himself  before  his  Creator  in  the  sublime  words 
of  the  second  inaugural,  there  is  not  an  ex- 
pression known  to  have  come  from  his  li; 
his  pen  but  proves  that  he  held  himself  answer- 
able in  every  act  of  his  career  to  a  more  au- 
gust tribunal  than  any  on  earth.  The  tact  that 
he  was  not  a  communicant  of  any  church,  and 
that  he  was  singularly  reserved  in  regard  to 
his  personal  religious  life,  gives  only  the  greater 
force  to  these  striking  proofs  of  his  profound 
reverence  and  faith. 
In  final  substantiation  of  this  assertion,  we 
subjoin  two  papers  from  the  hand  of  the  Pres- 
ident, one  official  and  the  other  private,  which 
bear  within  themselves  the  imprint  ot  a  sincere 
devotion  and  a  steadfast  reliance  upon  the 
power  and  benignity  of  an  overruling  Provi- 
dence. The  first  is  an  order  which  he  issued 
on  the  1 6th  of  November,  1864,  on  the  observ- 
ance of  Sunday : 
The  President,  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  A 
and  Navy,  desires  and  enjoins  the  orderly  observ- 
which  may  be  made  to  his  taking  such  possession  and 
control.  'What  is  to  be  done  about  it  ?  "  [Lincoln  to 
Stanton.  MS..  Feb.  11,  1S04.] 
1  Lincoln  to  Hogan,  Feb.  15. 1S04. 
'2  Lincoln  MS..  March  4.  1864. 
3  Lincoln  MS.,  May  13.  1864. 
4  War  Records,  Vol.  XVIL,  pp.  4-4-  53*
568 
TO   A    PAIXTER. 
ance  o\  the  Sabbath  by  the  officers  and  men  in  the 
military  and  naval  service.  The  importance  for  man 
and  beast  of  the  prescribed  weekly  rest,  the  sacred 
rights  of  Christian  soldiers  and  sailors,  a  becoming 
deference  to  the  best  sentiment  of  Christian  people, 
and  a  due  regard  for  the  Divine  will,  demand  that 
Sunday  labor  in  the  Army  and  Navy  be  reduced  to 
the  measure  o\  strict  necessity.  The  discipline  and 
character  o\  the  national  forces  should  not  suffer, 
nor  the  cause  they  defend  be  imperiled,  by  the  prof- 
anation of  the  day  or  name  of  the  Most  High.  "  At 
this  time  of  public  distress  [adopting  the  words  of 
Washington  in  1770J  men  may  find  enough  to 
do  in  the  service  of  their  God  and  their  country 
without  abandoning  themselves  to  vice  and  immo- 
rality.'" The  first  General  Order  issued  by  the  Father 
of  his  Country  after  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
indicated  the  spirit  in  which  our  institutions  were 
founded  and  should  ever  be  defended.  "The  Gen- 
eral hopes  and  trusts  that  every  officer  and  man  will 
endeavor  to  live  and  act  as  becomes  a  Christian  sol- 
dier, defending  the  dearest  rights  and  liberties  of 
his  country.''  * 
The  date  of  this  remarkable  order  leaves  no 
possibility  for  the  insinuation  that  it  sprung 
from  any  political  purpose  or  intention.  Mr. 
Lincoln  had  just  been  reelected  by  an  over- 
whelming majority ;  his  party  was  everywhere 
triumphant ;  his  own  personal  popularity  was 
unbounded ;  there  was  no  temptation  to  hy- 
pocrisy or  deceit.  There  is  no  explanation  of 
the  order  except  that  it  was  the  offspring  of 
sincere  conviction.  But  if  it  may  be  said  that 
this  was,  after  all,  an  exoteric  utterance,  spring- 
1  General  McDowell  used  to  tell  a  story  which  illus- 
trates Mr.  Lincoln's  Sabbatarian  feeling.  The  Presi- 
dent had  ordered  a  movement  which  required  dispatch, 
and  in  his  anxiety  rode  to  McDowell's  headquarters 
to  inquire  how  soon  he  could  start.  "  On  Monday 
morning,"  said  McDowell;  "or,  by  pushing  things, 
perhaps  Sunday  afternoon."  Lincoln,  after  a  moment's 
thought,  said,  u  McDowell,  get  a  good  ready  and  start 
Monday."     [Herman  Haupt,  MS.  Memoirs.] 
ing  from  those  relations  of  religion  and  good 
government  which  the  wisest  rulers  have  al- 
ways recognized  in  their  intercourse  with  the 
people,  we  will  give  one  other  document,  of 
which  nothing  of  the  sort  can  be  said.  It  is 
a  paper  which  Mr.  Lincoln  wrote  in  Septem- 
ber, 1862,  while  his  mind  was  burdened  with 
the  weightiest  question  of  his  life,  the  weight- 
iest with  which  this  century  has  had  to  grapple. 
Wearied  with  all  the  considerations  of  law  and 
of  expediency  with  which  he  had  been  strug- 
years,  he  retired  within  himself 
gling  for  two 
and  tried  to  bring  some  order  into  his  thoughts 
rising  above  the  wrangling  of  men  and  of 
by 
parties,  and  pondering  the  relations  of  human 
government  to  the  Divine.  In  this  frame  of 
mind,  absolutely  detached  from  any  earthly 
considerations,  he  wrote  this  meditation.  It 
has  never  been  published.  It  was  not  written 
to  be  seen  of  men.  It  was  penned  in  the  aw- 
ful sincerity  of  a  perfectly  honest  soul  trying 
to  bring  itself  into  closer  communion  with  its 
Maker. 
The  will  of  God  prevails.  In  great  contests  each 
party  claims  to  act  in  accordance  with  the  will  of 
God.  Both  may  be  and  one  must  be  wrong.  God 
cannot  be  for  and  against  the  same  thing  at  the 
same  time.  In  the  present  civil  war  it  is  quite  pos- 
sible that  God's  purpose  is  something  different  from 
the  purpose  of  either  party  ;  and  yet  the  human 
instrumentalities,  working  just  as  they  do,  are  of  the 
best  adaptation  to  effect  his  purpose.  I  am  almost 
ready  to  say  that  this  is  probably  true  ;  that  God 
wills  this  contest,  and  wills  that  it  shall  not  end 
yet.  By  his  mere  great  power  on  the  minds  of  the 
now  contestants,  he  could  have  either  saved  or  de- 
strqyedthe  Union  without  a  human  contest.  Yet  the 
contest  began.  And  having  begun,  he  could  give  the 
final  victory  to  either  side  any  day.  Yet  the  con- 
test proceeds. 
0^,/rrf 
TO    A    PAIXTER.     (J.   A.    B.) 
Poet,  whose  golden  songs  in  silence  sung 
Thrill  from  the  canvas  to  the  hearts  of  men, — 
Sweet  harmonies  that  speak  without  a  tongue, 
Melodious  numbers  writ  without  a  pen, — 
The  great  gods  gifted  thee  and  hold  thee  dear ; 
Placed  in  thy  hand  the  torch  which  genius  lit, 
Touched  thee  with  genial  sunshine,  and  good  cheer. 
And  swift  heat  lightnings  of  a  charming  wit 
Whose  shafts  are  ever  harmless,  though  so  bright ; 
Gave  thee  of  all  life's  blessings  this,  the  best. — 
The  true  love  of  thy  kind, —  for  thy  delight. 
So  be  thou  happy,  poet-painter  blest, 
Whose  gentle  eyes  look  out,  all  unaware, 
Beneath  the  brow  of  Keats,  soft-crowned  with  shadowy  hair. 
Celia  Thaxter.
ABRAHAM    LINCOLN:    A     HISTORY 
CABINET    CHANGES— LINCOLN    REELECTED 
AS    CHIEF-JUSTICE. 
CHASE 
BY  JOHN   G.    NICOLAY   AND   JOHN    HAY,    PRIVATE    SECRETARIES    TO    TH 
CABINET     CHANGES. 
HE  principal  concession  in 
the  Baltimore  platform 
made  by  the  friends  of  the 
Administration  to  its  op- 
ponents was  the  resolution 
which  called  for  harmony 
in  the  Cabinet;  and  al- 
though no  method  was 
specified  by  which  such  harmony  could  be  at- 
tained, it  was  no  secret  that  the  convention 
requested,  and,  so  far  as  its  authority  went, 
required,  that  the  Cabinet  should  be  rendered 
homogeneous  by  the  dismissal  of  those  mem- 
bers who  were  stigmatized  as  conservatives. 
The  President  at  first  took  no  notice,  either 
publicly  or  privately,  of  this  resolution,  and  it 
was  with  something  akin  to  consternation  that 
the  radical  body  of  his  supporters  heard  of 
the  first  change  which  occurred  in  his  Cabinet 
after  the  convention  adjourned.  The  resigna- 
tion of  Mr.  Chase,  whom  the  extreme  radicals 
regarded  as  in  some  sort  their  special  repre- 
sentative in  the  Government,  took  them  en- 
tirely by  surprise.  The  demonstration  made 
by  Mr.  Wade  and  Mr.  Davis  some  weeks  later 
increased  the  feeling  of  restlessness  among 
them,  and  brought  upon  the  President  a  power- 
ful pressure  from  every  quarter  to  induce  him 
to  give  satisfaction  to  the  radical  demand  by 
the  dismissal  from  the  Cabinet  of  Montgom- 
ery Blair,  the  Postmaster- General,  who  had 
gradually  attracted  to  himself  the  hostility  of  all 
the  radical  Republicans  in  the  country.  The 
unpopularity  into  which  Mr.  Blair  had  fallen 
among  the  radicals  was  one  of  those  inci- 
dents that  recall  the  oft-repeated  simile  that 
compares  political  revolutions  to  Saturn  de- 
vouring his  offspring.  Mr.  Blair  was  one  of 
the  founders  of  the  Republican  party.  After 
graduating  at  West  Point  and  serving  for  a  year 
in  the  Seminole  war,  he  resigned  his  commis- 
sion in  the  army  and  began  to  practice  law  in 
St.  Louis.  He  immediately  gained  high  dis- 
tinction in  his  profession,  and  became,  while 
yet  a  young  man,  a  judge  of  the  Court  of  Com- 
mon Pleas.  He  returned  to  Maryland,  and  in 
1855  was  appointed  solicitor  of  the  United 
States  in  the  Court  of  Claims.  The  repeal  of 
1  Copyright  by  J.  G.  Nicolay  and  J 
the  Missouri  Compromise  made  a  Republican 
of  him.     President   Buchanan  removed   him 
from  office  in  1858  on  account  of  hi    , 
antislavery  attitude.     He  was  counsel  for 
plaintiff  in  the  famous  Dred  Scott  case,  and 
presided  over  the  Republican  convei 
Maryland  in  i860.    With  the  exception  I  I 
brother  Frank  in  Missouri,  and  Cassius  M.  I 
in  Kentucky,  he  was  beyond  question  the  m 
prominent  opponent  of  the  extension  of  slav- 
ery in  all  the  Southern  States.   The  immediate 
cause  which  occasioned  his  loss  of  caste  an. 
the  radical  antislavery  men  was  the  quarrel 
which  sprung  up  between  his  family  and  I 
eral  Fremont  in  Missouri.    In  this  also  he  had 
the  mortification  of  feeling  that  he  had  nursed 
the  pinion  that  impelled  the  steel.    The  reputa- 
tion of  General  Fremont  was  the  creation  of 
the  Blairs.    It  was  at  their  solicitation  that  the 
President  appointed  the  Pathfinder  a  major- 
general  in   the  regular  army,  and  gave  him 
command  of  the  important  department  of  Mis- 
souri.   So  late  as  the  24th  of  August.  1 
General    Fremont  relied    upon   Montgomery 
Blair  for  all  the  support  and  assistance  he  re- 
quired in  Washington.    The  Postmaster-Gen- 
eral, writing  to  him  on   that  date,  spoke  of 
the  President  and  his  colleagues  with  the  in- 
discreet frankness  of  confidential  friendship. 
"  Chase,"  he  said,  "  has  more  horror  o\  5 
treasury  notes  below  par  than  of  seeing  sol- 
diers killed,  and  therefore  has  held  back  too 
much,  I  think.    I  do  not  believe  at  all  in  that 
style  of  managing  the  Treasury."    He  goes  on 
lamenting  his  lack  of  influence  in  the  I 
ernment  in  a  style  which  reminds  us  oi  Mr. 
Chase  himself. 
This,  1  can  see  [he  says],  is  partly  my  own  fault. 
1  have  been  too  obstreperous,  perhaps,  in  my  posi- 
tion, and  men  do  not  like  those  who  h... 
their  mistakes  beforehand  and  dun  the:ii  with  them 
afterwards.     The  main  difficulty  is,  however,  with 
Lincoln  himself.     He  is  o\  the  Whig  school, 
that  brings  him  naturally  not  only  to  incline  to  the 
feeble  policy  oi  the  Whigs,  but  10  give  his  - 
deuce  to  such  advisers.     It  costs  me  a  great  de.:l  of 
labor  to  get  anything  done,  because  of  this  inclina- 
tion in  the  mind  of  the  President,  or  leading  mem- 
bers of  the  Cabinet,  including  Chas 
voted  a  Democratic  ticket  in  his  life.    B.  I 
got  the  people  at  your  back,  and  I  am  doing  all  I 
'ohn  Hay,  1SS6.     All  rights  reserved.
6SS 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
can  to  cut  red  tape  and  get  things  done.  I  will  be 
more  civil  and  patient  than  heretofore,  and  see  if 
that  will  work. 
No  man  can  be  sufficiently  sure  of  friends 
to  write  them  such  letters  as  this.  A  few  months 
later  Fremont  was  Blair's  deadliest  enemy, 
and  these  letters,  being  printed,  came  up  like 
impertinent  ghosts  between  the  Postmaster- 
General  and  his  colleagues  at  the  Cabinet  table. 
In  the  beginning  of  this  quarrel  the  Blairs 
were  unquestionably  right;  but  being  unjustly 
assailed  by  the  radicals,  the  natural  pugnac- 
ity of  their  dispositions  would  not  permit  them 
to  rest  firmly  planted  on  their  own  ground. 
They  entered  upon  a  course  of  hostility  that 
was  at  first  confined  to  their  factious  enemies, 
but  which  gradually  broadened  and  extended 
till  it  landed  them  both  in  the  Democratic 
part}-.  Montgomery  Blair  was  doubtless  un- 
conscious of  his  progress  in  that  direction.  He 
thought  himself  the  most  zealous  of  Republi- 
cans until  the  moment  that  he  declared  him- 
self the  most  zealous  of  Democrats.  Every 
admonition  he  received  but  increased  the  heat 
and  energy  with  which  he  defended  himself. 
The  Union  League  of  Philadelphia,  towards 
the  close  of  1863,  left  out  his  name  in  the  res- 
olutions by  which  they  elected  all  the  rest  of 
the  Cabinet  honorary  members  of  the  League. 
He  chose  to  consider  Mr.  Winter  Davis  re- 
sponsible for  some  attacks  made  upon  him, 
and  desired  to  defeat  him  in  Maryland.  The 
President,  who  had  certainly  no  cause  to  show 
personal  favor  to  Mr.  Davis,  said  that  as  he 
was  the  choice  of  the  Union  men  of  Maryland 
he  merited  and  should  receive  what  friendly 
support  the  Administration  could  give  him. 
Mr.  Blair  made  a  speech  in  Rockville  touch- 
ing upon  the  subject  of  reconstruction,  and 
indulged  in  vigorous  and  somewhat  acrid  al- 
lusions to  some  of  his  leading  Republican  as- 
sailants. This  brought  upon  him,  and  upon 
Mr.  Lincoln,  over  his  shoulders,  much  vehe- 
ment criticism.  It  was  in  relation  to  this  speech 
that  the  President  said : 
The  controversy  between  the  two  sets  of  men 
represented  by  Blair  and  by  Sumner  is  one  of  mere 
form  and  little  else.  I  do  not  think  Mr.  Blair  would 
agree  that  the  States  in  rebellion  are  to  be  per- 
mitted to  come  at  once  into  the  political  family 
and  renew  their  performances,  which  have  already 
so  bedeviled  us,  and  I  do  not  think  Mr.  Sumner 
would  insist  that  when  the  loyal  people  of  a  State 
obtain  supremacy  in  their  councils  and  are  ready 
to  assume  the  direction  of  their  own  affairs  they 
should  be  excluded.  I  do  not  understand  Mr.  Blair 
to  admit  that  Jefferson  Davis  may  take  his  seat  in 
Congress  again  as  a  representative  of  his  people.  I 
do  not  understand  Mr.  Sumner  to  assert  that  John 
Minor' Bot's  may  not.  So  far  as  1  understand  Mr. 
Sumner,  he  seems  in  favor  of  Congress  taking  from 
the  Executive  the  power  it  at  present  exercises  over 
insurrectionary  districts  and  assuming  it  to  itself; 
but  when  the  vital  question  arises  as  to  the  right 
and  privilege  of  the  people  of  these  States  to  govern 
themselves,  I  apprehend  there  will  be  little  difference 
among  loyal  men.  The  question  atonce  is  presented, 
in  whom  is  this  power  vested?  and  the  practical 
matter  for  discussion  is  how  to  keep  the  rebellious 
population  from  overwhelming  and  outvoting  the 
loyal  minority.1 
It  was  about  this  time  that  the  President 
wrote  the  letter  of  kindly  and  sensible  advice 
to  General  Frank  Blair  which  we  have  given  in 
another  place ;  a  letter  which,  when  published 
many  months  afterwards,  gave  great  and  last- 
ing offense  to  the  enemies  of  Blair  in  Congress 
and  in  the  country.  Although  General  Blair 
at  this  time  retired  from  the  contest  for  the 
speakership,  the  Postmaster- General  contin- 
ued, with  equally  bad  taste  and  judgment,  to 
oppose  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Colfax  for  that 
place.  Upon  Colfax  going  to  him  in  person 
and  demanding  the  motive  of  his  hostility,  Mr. 
Blair  was  so  indiscreet  as  to  give  as  a  reason 
for  his  opposition  that  Colfax  was  running  as  a 
Chase  candidate.2 
The  opposition  to  Blair  was  not  confined  to 
the  radical  demonstrations  in  the  Baltimore 
convention  and  out  of  it.  Some  of  the  most 
judicious  Republicans  in  the  country,  who  were 
not  personally  unfriendly  to  Blair,  urged  upon 
the  President  the  necessity  of  freeing  himself 
from  such  a  source  of  weakness  and  discord. 
Even  in  the  bosom  of  the  Government  itself 
a  strong  hostility  to  Mr.  Blair  made  itself  felt. 
While  Mr.  Chase  remained  in  the  Cabinet  there 
was  always  a  condition  of  smoldering  hostil- 
ity between  the  two  men.  Mr.  Blair's  enmity 
to  Mr.  Seward  also  became  more  and  more 
violent  in  its  expression,  and  his  relations  with 
Mr.  Stanton  were  subject  to  a  strain  which  was 
hardly  endurable.  There  was  still,  however,  so 
much  in  his  character  and  antecedents  that  was 
estimable,  the  President  had  so  deep  a  regard 
for  both  the  Blairs,  and  especially  for  their 
father,  that  he  had  great  reluctance  to  take  any 
action  against  the  Postmaster-General.  In  the 
middle  of  July,  after  the  termination  of  Early's 
raid  upon  Washington,  General  Halleck,  ex- 
asperated by  the  report  of  stringent  and  sar- 
castic remarks  which  Mr.  Blair,  under  the 
provocation  of  the  destruction  by  rebels  of  his 
property  in  the  suburbs  of  Washington,  had 
made,  in  reference  to  the  laxity  or  poltroonery 
of  the  defenders  of  the  capital,  addressed  an 
angry  note  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  saying  that 
he  wished  to  know  "  whether  such  wholesale 
denouncement  and  accusation  by  a  member 
of  the  Cabinet  receives  the  sanction  and  appro- 
bation of  the  President  of  the  United  States. 
1  J.  H.,  Diary,  Nov.  1 
2  J.  H.,  Diary,  Nov 
21.
CABINET  CHANGES. 
If  so,"  said  General  Hal  leek,  "  the  names  of 
the  officers  accused  should  be  stricken  from 
the  rolls  of  the  army;  if  not,  it  is  due  to  the 
honor  of  the  accused  that  the  slanderer  should 
be  dismissed  from  the  Cabinet."  Mr.  Stanton 
sent  this  letter  of  Halleck's  to  the  President 
without  comment.  The  President,  on  the  same 
day,  replied  in  his  most  masterful  manner.  After 
summarizing  Halleck's  letter,  he  said : 
Whether  the  remarks  were  really  made  I  do  not 
know,  nor  do  I  suppose  such  knowledge  is  neces- 
sary to  a  correct  response.  If  they  were  made,  I  do 
not  approve  them  ;  andyet,  under  thecircumstances, 
I  would  not  dismiss  a  member  of  the  Cabinet  there- 
for. I  do  not  consider  what  may  have  been  hastily 
said  in  a  moment  of  vexation  at  so  severe  a  loss  is 
sufficient  ground  for  so  grave  a  step.  Besides  this, 
truth  is  generally  the  best  vindication  against  slan- 
der. I  propose  continuing  to  be  myselt  the  judge 
as.to  when  a  member  of  the  Cabinet  shall  be  dis- 
missed.1 
Not  satisfied  with  this,  the  President,  when 
the  Cabinet  came  together,  made  them  this 
impressive  and  oracular  little  speech : 
I  must  myself  be  the  judge  how  long  to  retain  in 
and  when  to  remove  any  of  you  from  his  position. 
It  would  greatly  pain  me  to  discover  any  of  you  en- 
deavoring to  procure  another's  removal,  or  in  any 
way  to  prejudice  him  before  the  public.  Such  en- 
deavor would  be  a  wrong  to  me,  and,  much  worse, 
a  wrong  to  the  country.  My  wish  is  that  on  this  sub- 
ject no  remark  be  made  nor  question  asked  by  any 
of  vou,  here  or  elsewhere,  now  or  hereafter.2 
This,  we  are  inclined  to  think,  is  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  speeches  ever  made  by  a 
President.  The  tone  of  authority  is  unmis- 
takable. Washington  was  never  more  digni- 
fied ;  Jackson  was  never  more  peremptory. 
The  feeling  against  Mr.  Blair  and  the  pressure 
upon  the  President  to  remove  him  increased 
throughout  the  summer.  Henry  Wilson  wrote 
on  the  5th  of  September,  "  Blair  every  one 
hates.  Tens  of  thousands  of  men  will  be  lost 
to  you  or  will  give  a  reluctant  vote  on  account 
of  the  Blairs."  The  President's  mail  was  filled 
with  such  appeals  as  this;  but  through  the 
gloom  and  discouragement  of  midsummer  he 
declined  to  act.  There  was  a  moment,  as  we 
have  seen,  when  he  lost  heart  in  the  campaign, 
and  believed  that  the  verdict  of  the  country 
would  be  against  him.  Yet  even  then  he  re- 
fused to  make  the  concession  to  the  radical 
spirit  which  he  was  assured  from  every  quar- 
ter would  result  so  greatly  to  his  advantage; 
but  with  the  victories  which  came  later  in  the 
season,  and  with  the  response  of  the  country 
to  the  infamy  of  the  surrender  of  the  Chicago 
convention,  there  came  a  great  and  inspiring 
change   of  public   opinion,   and  before   the 
1  Lincoln  to  Stanton,  July  14,  1864.    MS. 
2  Lincoln.    MS. 
montli  of  September  ended  \.  d  triumph 
of  the  Union  1  ame  evi- 
capable  as  was  Mr.  Lincoln  tod  ;  ap- 
preciate the  signs  of  the  ti:  Jt  that  it 
was  his  duty  no  longer  to  retain  ;:. 
inet  a  member  who,   whatever   his    p-.-r^onal 
merits,  had  lost  the  confid 
body  of  Republican  .    He 
during  the  long  controversy  more  than  he 
ever  known  before  of  the  violent  and  unruly 
candor  of  the  Postmaster-GeneraL 
ated  by   the   attacks  made   upon   him,   t 
were  no  limits  to  Mr.  Blair's  jealousy  and 
picion.    He  wearied  the  President  by  mating 
upon  it  that  all  the  leading  Republicans  were 
Lincoln's  enemies.    After  Chase  left  the  Cab- 
inet he  insisted  that  Seward  and  Stanton 
in  league  against  Lincoln ;  that  Stanton  went 
into  the  Cabinet  to  break  down  the  Adminis- 
tration   by   thwarting    McClellan,    and    that 
Seward  was  coquetting  with  the  Copper!* 
Mr.  Lincoln  listened  to  these  denunciations 
with  growing  fatigue  and  impatience.  He  pro- 
tested against  them.    He  said    once  to   Mr. 
Blair,  in  the  presence  of  another,  -  It  is  much 
better  not  to  be  led  from  the  region  of  reason 
into  that  of  hot  blood  by  imputing  to  | 
lie  men  motives  which  they  do  not  avc 
Towards  the  end  of  September  the  President, 
reasonably  sure  of  his  reelection,  and  fe 
that  he  ought  not  any  longer  to  delay  comply- 
ing with  the  demand  of  a  part}-  which 
ing  him  so  earnest  and  loyal  a  support,  wrote 
this  letter  to  the  Postmaster-General: 
You  have  generously  said  to  me  more  than  once 
that  whenever  your  resignation  could  be  a  relief  to 
me  it  was  at  my  disposal.  The  time  i>  come.  You 
very  well  know  that  this  proceeds  from  no  dissatis- 
faction of  mine  with  you  personally  or  officially. 
Your   uniform  kindness  has  been  u  ad   by 
that  of  any  other  friend  ;  and  while  it  is  true  that 
the  war  does  not  so  greatly  add  to  the  difficulties 
of  your  department  as  to  those  of  some  others,  it  is 
yet  much  to  say,  as  I  most  truly  can,  that  in  the 
three  years  and  a  half  during  which  you  have  ad- 
ministered the  General  Post-office.  1  remember  no 
single  complaint  against  you  in  connection  there- 
with.* 
Mr.  Blair  accepted  his  dismissal  in  a  man- 
ner which  was  to  have  been  expected  from 
his  manly  and  generous  character.  He  called 
upon  the  President  at  once,  not  pretending 
to  be  pleased  at  what  had  happened,  but  as- 
suming that  the  President  had  g 
for  his  action,  and  refraining  from  any 
mand  for  explanation.  He  went  immediately 
to  Maryland  and  busied  himself  in  speak- 
ing and  working  for  the  Union  cause,  and  for 
the  reelection  of  Mr.  Lincoln.    He  made  a 
3  J.  H..  Diary. 
4  Lincoln  to  Blair,  September  23,  i>  _.
690 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
sneech  a  few  days  later  in  New  York,  at  a  great 
war  meeting,  in  which  he  said  that  the  action 
of  the  President  in  asking  his  resignation  was 
suggested  by  his  own  father.  All  the  family 
received  this  serious  reverse  in  the  temper  of 
fighting  men  ready  for  all  the  chances  of  bat- 
ad  of  bold  players  whose  traditional  rule 
of  conduct  when  the  cards  go  against  them  is, 
••  Pay  and  look  pleasant."  General  Blair  wrote 
to  his  father  that  he  was  sure  in  advance  that 
his  brother  had  acted  for  the  good  of  the  coun- 
try, and  in  the  interest  of  the  reelection  of 
Mr.  Lincoln,  in  which  he  says  "  the  safety  of 
the  country  is  involved." 
1  believe  [he  continued]  that  the  failure  to  elect 
Mr.  Lincoln  would  be  the  greatest  disaster  that 
could  befall  the  country,  and  the  sacrifice  made  by 
the  judge  to  prevent  this  is  so  incomparably  small 
that  1  feel  it  would  not  cost  him  a  pang  to  make. 
.  .  .  He  leaves  the  Cabinet  with  an  untarnished 
name,  and  a  reputation  of  having  administered  the 
department  with  the  greatest  ability  and  success; 
and  so  far  as  worldly  considerations  go,  it  is  better 
for  him  to  go  out  than  to  remain  in  the  Cabinet. 
As  to  the  future  1  have  no  fear.  If  Mr.  Lincoln's 
reelection  is  secured,  no  matter  what  his  personal 
disposition  may  be  towards  us,  or  what  his  political 
necessities  may  compel  him  to  do,  if  the  country 
is  saved  and  restored,  those  who  have  served  it  in 
its  trials  will  someday  be  rewarded  for  the  patriotism 
they  have  shown  by  a  higher  power  than  that  of 
the  President. 
After  the  death  of  Judge  Taney,  Mr.  Blair  for 
a  while  indulged  the  hope  that  he  might  be  ap- 
pointed Chief-Justice,  a  position  for  which  his 
natural  abilities,  his  legal  learning,  his  former 
judicial  service,  and  his  large  acquaintance 
with  the  more  important  matters  which  would 
come  before  the  court  eminently  fitted  him ; 
but  the  competition  of  Mr.  Chase  was  too 
strong  for  any  rival,  however  worthy,  and  he 
was  chosen,  to  the  bitter  disappointment  of  the 
Blairs.  Even  this  did  not  shake  their  stead- 
fast loyalty  to  the  Union  cause,  nor  their  per- 
sonal fidelity  and  friendship  to  the  President. 
Immediately  after  his  second  inauguration  Mr. 
Lincoln  offered  Montgomery  Blair  his  choice 
of  the  Spanish  or  the  Austrian  mission,  an  offer 
which  was  peremptorily  though  respectfully 
declined.1 
Mr.  Blair's  successor  in  the  Cabinet,  ex- 
Governor  William  Dennison  of  Ohio,  had  been 
selected  beforehand.  The  President  informed 
him  of  his  appointment  in  a  curt  telegram,  and 
directed  him  to  proceed  to  Washington  as 
soon  as  possible.  Mr.  Dennison  had  rendered 
admirable  service  to  the  Government  as  gov- 
ernor of  Ohio  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  He 
was  a  gentleman  of  the  highest  character,  of 
great  ability  and  perfect  integrity,  and  of  pecu- 
liarly winning  and  gracious  manners.  We  find 
1  Seward  to  Lincoln,  March  9,  1865.     MS. 
among  the  President's  papers  a  letter  written 
by  his  intimate  friend,  David  Davis,  on  the 
2d  of  June,  suggesting  Governor  Dennison  as 
a  proper  person  to  preside  over  the  Baltimore 
convention.  Judge  Davis  says:  "He  is  a 
pure,  upright  man,  one  of  your  most  devoted 
friends.  If,  during  this  or  your  subsequent 
administration,  you  think  it  your  duty  to  modify 
your  Cabinet,  in  my  judgment  you  could  not 
get  a  wiser  counselor  than  Governor  Denni- 
son." This,  so  far  as  we  know,  was  the  first, 
perhaps  the  only,  suggestion  made  to  the  Presi- 
dent in  favor  of  Mr.  Dennison  for  a  place  in 
the  Cabinet.  The  claim  of  localities  always 
had  a  disproportionate  weight  in  his  mind. 
When  Mr.  Chase  resigned  Mr.  Lincoln  ap- 
pointed Governor  Tod  in  his  place,  and  after 
Tod  had  declined  he  was  glad  to  find  an  op- 
portunity to  call  another  Ohio  statesman  into 
his  Cabinet. 
The  reconstruction  of  the  Cabinet  went  on 
by  gradual  disintegration  rather  than  by  any 
brusque  or  even  voluntary  action  of  the  Presi- 
dent. Mr.  Bates,  the  Attorney- General,  before 
the  end  of  the  year  1864  grew  weary,  not  only 
of  the  labors  of  his  official  position,  but  also  of 
the  rapid  progress  of  the  revolution  of  which 
he  had  been  one  of  the  earliest  advocates. 
Although  heartily  devoted  to  the  cause  of  free- 
dom and  emancipation,  he  was  wedded,  by  con- 
stitutional temperament  and  lifelong  habit,  to 
the  strictest  rules  of  law  and  precedent.  Every 
deviation  from  tradition  pained  him  inexpres- 
sibly. The  natural  and  unavoidable  triumph  of 
the  radical  party  in  St.  Louis  politics,  and  to 
a  certain  extent  in  those  of  the  nation,  seemed 
to  him  the  herald  of  the  trump  of  doom.  He 
grew  tired  of  it  all,  and  expressed  to  the  Presi- 
dent his  desire  for  retirement.  If  he  had  not 
himself  wished  to  retire,  the  President  would 
probably  not  have  suggested  it ;  he  was  greatly 
displeased  at  an  announcement  made  by  Simon 
Cameron,  as  if  upon  his  authority,  that  in  the 
event  of  reelection  he  would  call  around  him 
fresh  and  earnest  antislavery  men.  Mr.  Lin- 
coln, on  hearing  of  this  indiscreet  and  injurious 
statement,  said,  "  They  need  not  be  so  savage 
about  a  change  in  the  Government.  There  are 
now  only  three  left  of  the  original  Cabinet." 
He  put  a  vacant  judgeship  at  the  disposition  of 
the  Attorney- General;  but  Mr.  Bates  declined 
it,  not  without  some  petulant  remarks  about 
the  "uselessness  of  a  legal  system  in  a  State 
dominated  by  the  revolutionary  spirit  which 
then  ruled  in  Missouri."  He  said  he  could  not 
work  in  harmony  with  the  radicals,  whom 
he  regarded  as  enemies  of  law  and  order; 
there  was  no  such  thing  as  a  patriotic  and  hon- 
est American  radical ;  some  of  the  transcen- 
dental Republican  Germans  were  honest 
enough  in  their  moon-struck  theorizing,  but  the