246     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF   LINCOLN 
so  well  qualified  to  judge  the  character  and  abilities  of 
men,  is  of  unusual  value;  and  it  is  worth  noting  that  Dr. 
Bateman  remarks  that,  while  he  was  always  an  admirer 
of  Lincoln,  yet  the  greatness  of  the  man  grew  upon 
him  as  the  years  pass  by.  In  his  professional  and  public 
work,  says  Dr.  Bateman,  Lincoln  not  only  proved 
himself  equal  to  every  emergency  and  to  every  successive 
task,  but  made,  from  the  outset,  the  impression  upon 
the  mind  of  those  who  knew  him  of  being  in  possession 
of  great  reserve  force.  Perhaps  the  secret  of  this  lies  in 
part  in  the  fact  that  he  was  accustomed  to  ponder  deeply 
upon  the  ultimate  principles  of  government  and  society, 
and  strove  to  base  his  discussions  upon  the  firm  ground 
of  ethical  truth.  Says  Dr.  Bateman,  "He  was  the  sad 
dest  man  I  ever  knew."  It  was  a  necessity  of  his  nature 
to  be  much  alone;  and  he  said  that  all  his  serious  work  — 
by  which  he  meant  the  process  of  getting  down  to  the 
bed-rock  of  first  principles  —  must  be  done  in  solitude. 
Upon  one  occasion  he  called  Dr.  Bateman  to  him,  and 
spent  more  than  two  hours  in  earnest  conversation  upon 
the  most  serious  themes.  At  the  close,  Dr.  Bateman 
said:  "I  did  not  know,  Mr.  Lincoln,  that  it  was  your 
habit  to  think  so  deeply  upon  this  class  of  subjects." 
"Didn't  you?"  said  Mr.  Lincoln*;  "I  can  almost  say 
that  I  think  of  nothing  else.9' 
One  day  there  entered  Lincoln's  room  a  tall  South 
erner,  a  Colonel  Somebody  from  Mississippi,  whose  eye's 
hard  glitter  spoke  supercilious  distrust  and  whose  stiff 
bearing  betokened  suppressed  hostility.  It  was  beauti 
ful,  says  Dr.  Bateman,  to  see  the  cold  flash  of  the  South 
erner's  dark  eye  yield  to  a  warmer  glow,  and  the  haughty 
constraint  melt  into  frank  good-nature,  under  the  in 
fluence  of  Lincoln's  words  of  simple  earnestness  and 
unaffected  cordiality.  They  got  so  far  in  half  an  hour 
that  Lincoln  could  say,  in  his  hearty  way:  "Colonel, 
how  tall  are  you? "  "Well,  taller  than  you,  Mr.  Lincoln,"
EVERY-DAY   LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     247 
replied  the  Mississippian.  "You  are  mistaken  there," 
retorted  Lincoln.  "Dr.  Bateman,  will  you  measure 
us?"  "You  will  have  to  permit  me  to  stand  on  a  chair 
for  that,"  responded  the  Doctor.  So  a  big  book  was 
adjusted  above  the  head  of  each,  and  pencil  marks  made 
at  the  respective  points  of  contact  with  the  white  wall. 
Lincoln's  altitude,  as  thus  indicated,  was  a  quarter 
inch  above  that  of  the  Colonel.  "I  knew  it,"  said 
Lincoln.  "They  raise  tall  men  down  in  Mississippi,  but 
you  go  home  and  tell  your  folks  that  Old  Abe  tops  you  a 
little."  The  Colonel  went  away  much  mollified  and 
impressed.  "My  God!"  said  he  to  Dr.  Bateman,  as  he 
went  out.  "There's  going  to  be  war;  but  could  my 
people  know  what  I  have  learned  within  the  last  hour, 
there  need  be  no  war." 
During  the  Presidential  campaign,  the  vote  of  the  city 
of  Springfield  was  canvassed  house  by  house.  There 
were  at  that  time  twenty-three  clergymen  residing  in 
the  city  (not  all  pastors).  All  but  three  of  these  signi 
fied  their  intention  to  vote  against  Lincoln.  This  fact 
seemed  to  grieve  him  somewhat.  Soon  after,  in  con 
versing  upon  the  subject  with  Dr.  Bateman,  he  said,  as 
if  thinking  aloud:  "These  gentlemen  know  that  Judge 
Douglas  does  not  care  a  cent  whether  slavery  in  the 
territories  is  voted  up  or  voted  down,  for  he  has  repeatedly 
told  them  so.  They  know  that  I  do  care."  Then,  draw 
ing  from  a  breast  pocket  a  well-thumbed  copy  of  the 
New  Testament,  he  added,  after  a  pause,  tapping  upon 
the  book  with  his  bony  finger:  "I  do  not  so  understand 
this  book." 
The  poet  Bryant  was  conspicuous  among  the  promi 
nent  Eastern  men  who  favored  Lincoln's  nomination 
for  the  Presidency  in  1860.  He  had  introduced 
Lincoln  to  the  people  of  New  York  at  the  Cooper  Insti 
tute  meeting  of  the  previous  winter,  and  was  a  firm 
believer  in  the  Western  politician.  After  the  convention
248     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF   LINCOLN 
Mr.  Bryant  wrote  Lincoln  a  most  friendly  and  timely 
letter,  full  of  good  feeling  and  of  wise  advice.  Especially 
did  he  warn  Lincoln  to  be  cautious  in  committing 
himself  to  any  specific  policy,  or  making  pledges  or  en 
gagements  of  any  kind.  Mr.  Bryant's  letter  contained 
much  political  wisdom,  and  was  written  in  that  scholarly 
style  for  which  he  was  distinguished.  But  it  could  not 
surpass  the  simple  dignity  and  grace  of  Lincoln's  reply: 
SPRINGFIELD,  ILL.,  JUNE  28,  1860. 
Please  accept  my  thanks  for  the  honor  done  me  by 
your  kind  letter  of  the  16th.  I  appreciate  the  danger 
against  which  you  would  guard  me;  nor  am  I  wanting 
in  the  purpose  to  avoid  it.  I  thank  you  for  the  additional 
strength  your  words  give  me  to  maintain  that  purpose. 
Your  friend  and  servant,        A.  LINCOLN. 
Mr.  A.  J.  Grover  relates  that  about  this  time  he  met 
Lincoln,  and  had  a  memorable  conversation  with 
him  on  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  Lincoln  detested  this 
law,  but  argued  that  until  it  was  declared  unconsti 
tutional  it  must  be  obeyed.  This  was  a  short  time  after 
the  rescue  of  a  fugitive  slave  at  Ottawa,  Illinois,  by  John 
Hossack,  James  Stout,  Major  Campbell,  and  others, 
after  Judge  John  D.  Caton,  acting  as  United  States 
Commissioner,  had  given  his  decision  remanding  him  to 
the  custody  of  his  alleged  owner;  and  the  rescuers  were 
either  in  prison  or  out  on  bail,  awaiting  their  trials.  Says 
Mr.  Grover:  "When  Mr.  Lincoln  had  finished  his  argu 
ment  I  said,  *  Constitutional  or  not,  I  will  never  obey  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law.  I  would  have  done  as  Hossack  and 
Stout  and  Campbell  did  at  Ottawa.  I  will  never  catch 
and  return  slaves  in  obedience  to  any  law  or  constitution. 
I  do  not  believe  a  man's  liberty  can  be  taken  from  him 
constitutionally  without  a  trial  by  jury.  I  believe  the 
law  to  be  not  only  unconstitutional,  but  most  inhuman/ 
'Oh,'  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  I  shall  never  forget  his  earnest-
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     249 
ness  as  he  emphasized  it  by  striking  his  hand  on  his  knee, 
'it  is  ungodly!  it  is  ungodly!  no  doubt  it  is  ungodly! 
but  it  is  the  law  of  the  land,  and  we  must  obey  it  as  we 
find  it.'  I  said:  *  Mr.  Lincoln,  how  of  ten  have  you  sworn 
to  support  the  Constitution?  We  propose  to  elect  you 
President.  How  would  you  look  taking  an  oath  to  sup 
port  what  you  declare  is  an  ungodly  Constitution,  and 
asking  God  to  help  you?'  He  felt  the  force  of  the  ques 
tion,  and,  inclining  his  head  forward  and  running  his 
fingers  through  his  hair  several  times,  seemed  lost  in 
reflection;  then  he  placed  his  hand  upon  my  knee  and 
said,  very  earnestly:  'Grover,  it's  no  use  to  be  always 
looking  up  these  hard  spots  / "  In  the  terrible  years  then 
almost  upon  him,  Lincoln  found  many  such  "hard 
spots"  without  taking  the  trouble  to  look  them  up.
CHAPTER    XIV 
Lincoln  Chosen  President  —  The  Election  of  1860  —  The  Waiting-time 
at  Springfield  —  A  Deluge  of  Visitors  —  Various  Impressions  of  the 
President-elect  —  Some  Queer  Callers  —  Looking  over  the  Situation 
with  Friends  —  Talks  about  the  Cabinet  —  Thurlow  Weed's  Visit 
to  Springfield  —  The  Serious  Aspect  of  National  Affairs  —  The 
South  in  Rebellion  —  Treason  at  the  National  Capital  —  Lincoln's 
Farewell  Visit  to  his  Mother  — The  Old  Sign,  "Lincoln  &  Herndon" 
—  The  Last  Day  at  Springfield  —  Farewell  Speech  to  Friends  and 
Neighbors  —  Off  for  the  Capital  —  The  Journey  to  Washington  — • 
Receptions  and  Speeches  along  the  Route  —  At  Cincinnati:  A 
Hitherto  Unpublished  Speech  by  Lincoln  —  At  Cleveland:  Personal 
Descriptions  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lincoln  —  At  New  York  City:  Im 
pressions  of  the  New  President  —  Perils  of  the  Journey  —  The  Bal 
timore  Plot  —  Change  of  Route  —  Arrival  at  the  Capital. 
THE  Presidential  campaign  of  1860,  with  its  ex 
citements  and  struggles,  its  "  Wide-awake  "  clubs 
and  boisterous  enthusiasm  ^throughout  the  North,  and  its 
bitter  and  threatening  character  throughout  the  South, 
was  at  last  ended;  and  on  the  6th  of  November 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  elected  President  of  the  United 
States.1  His  cause  had  been  aided  not  a  little  by  an 
unexpected  division  in  the  Democratic  party.  Douglas 
had  been  nominated  for  the  Presidency  by  this  party 
in  its  convention  at  Baltimore  on  the  18th  of  June; 
but  he  was  bitterly  opposed  by  the  extreme  slavery 
element  of  the  Democracy,  and  this  faction  held  a  con 
vention  of  its  own  at  Baltimore  ten  days  later  and 
nominated  for  President  John  C.  Breckenridge  of  Ken 
tucky.  There  was  still  another  party,  though  a  very 
1  The  popular  vote  was  as  follows:  Lincoln,  1,857,610;  Douglas, 
1,291,574;  Breckenridge,  850,082;  Bell,  646,124.  Of  the  electoral  votes, 
Lincoln  had  180;  Breckenridge,  72;  Bell,  39;  and  Douglas,  12.
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     251 
minor  one,  in  the  field  —  the  "  Constitutional  Union 
Party,"  based  chiefly  on  a  desire  to  avoid  the  issue  of 
slavery  in  national  politics  —  which  on  the  9th  of  May 
had  nominated  John  Bell  of  Tennessee  as  its  candidate 
for  the  Presidency,  with  Edward  Everett  of  Massa 
chusetts  for  the  Vice-Presidency.  There  were  thus  four 
tickets  in  the  field  —  the  Republican,  including  if  not 
representing  the  anti-slavery  element  in  the  North ; 
the  Democratic,  which  was  pro-slavery  in  its  tendencies 
but  had  so  far  failed  to  satisfy  the  Southern  wing  — 
now  grown  alarmed  and  restless  at  the  growth  and  ten 
dencies  of  the  Republican  party  —  that  this  element 
nominated  as  a  third  ticket  an  out-and-out  pro-slavery 
candidate;  and  (fourth)  a  "Constitutional  Union" 
ticket,  representing  a  well-meant  but  fatuous  desire  to 
keep  slavery  out  of  national  politics  altogether. 
This  eventful  contest  was  therefore  determined 
largely  on  sectional  lines,  with  slavery  as  the  great 
underlying  issue.  Lincoln's  gratification  at  his  elec 
tion  was  not  untempered  with  disappointments.  While 
he  had  a  substantial  majority  of  the  electoral  vote 
(180  to  123),  the  popular  vote  was  toward  a  million 
(930,170),  more  against  him  than  for  him.  Fifteen 
States  gave  him  no  electoral  vote,  and  in  nine  States' 
he  received  not  a  single  popular  vote.  The  slave 
States  —  "  the  Solid  South  "  -  were  squarely  against 
him.  Lincoln  saw  the  significance  of  this,  and  it  filled 
him  with  regret  and  apprehension.  But  he  faced  the 
future  without  dismay,  and  with  a  calm  resolve  to  do 
his  duty.  With  all  his  hatred  of  slavery,  loyalty  to 
the  Constitution  had  always  been  paramount  in  his 
mind;  and  those  who  knew  him  best  never  doubted 
that  it  would  continue  so. 
Lincoln  took  no  active  part  in  the  campaign,  prefer 
ring  to  remain  quietly  at  his  home  in  Springfield. 
Scarcely  was  the  election  decided  than  he  was  beset  with
252     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
visitors  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  who  came  to 
gratify  curiosity  or  solicit  personal  favors  of  the  incom 
ing  President.  The  throng  became  at  last  so  great,  and 
interfered  so  much  with  the  comfort  of  Lincoln's  home, 
that  the  Executive  Chamber  in  the  State  House  was 
set  apart  as  his  reception  room.  Here  he  met  all  who 
chose  to  come  —  "  the  millionaire  and  the  menial,  the 
priest  and  the  politician,  men,  women,  and  children, 
old  friends  and  new  friends,  those  who  called  for  love 
and  those  who  sought  for  office.  From  morning  until 
night  this  was  his  occupation;  and  he  performed  it 
with  conscientious  care  and  the  most  unwearying 
patience."  The  situation  at  the  Lincoln  home  at  this 
time,  and  the  spirit  prevailing  there,  is  well  depicted 
by  one  of  these  callers,  Mr.  R.  C.  McCormick,  whose 
interesting  account  of  his  meeting  with  Lincoln  in  New 
York  City  has  already  been  quoted  in  these  pages. 
"In  January,  1861,"  says  Mr.  McCormick,  "at  the 
instance  of  various  friends  in  New  York  who  wished 
a  position  in  the  Cabinet  for  a  prominent  Kentuckian, 
I  went  to  Springfield  armed  with  documents  for  his 
consideration.  I  remained  there  a  week  or  more,  and 
was  at  the  Lincoln  cottage  daily.  Of  the  numerous 
formal  and  informal  interviews  that  I  witnessed,  I  re 
member  all  with  the  sincerest  pleasure.  I  never  found 
the  man  upon  whom  rested  the  great  responsibilities  of 
the  nation  impatient  or  ill-humored.  The  plainest  and 
most  tedious  visitors  were  made  welcome  and  happy  in 
his  presence;  the  poor  commanded  as  much  of  his 
time  as  the  rich.  His  recognition  of  old  friends  and 
companions  in  frontier  life,  whom  many  elevated  as 
he  had  been  would  have  found  it  convenient  to  forget, 
was  especially  hearty.  His  correspondence  was  already 
immense,  and  the  town  was  alive  with  cabinet-makers 
and  office-seekers ;  but  he  met  all  with  a  calm  temper." 
Mr.  Don  Piatt  relates  that  he  had  met  Lincoln  dur-
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     253 
ing  the  Presidential  campaign,  and  had  been  invited 
to  visit  Springfield.  He  did  so,  and  was  asked  to 
supper  at  the  Lincoln  house.  "It  was  a. plain,  com 
fortable  structure,"  says  Mr.  Piatt,  "  and  the  supper 
was  mainly  of  cake,  pies,  and  chickens,  the  last  evi 
dently  killed  in  the  morning,  to  be  eaten  that  evening. 
After  the  supper  we  sat  far  into  the  night,  talking  over 
the  situation.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  the  homeliest  man  I 
ever  saw.  His  body  seemed  to  me  a  huge  skeleton  in 
clothes.  Tall  as  he  was,  his  hands  and  feet  looked  out 
of  proportion,  so  long  and  clumsy  were  they.  Every 
movement  was  awkward  in  the  extreme.  He  sat  with 
one  leg  thrown  over  the  other,  and  the  pendent  foot 
swung  almost  to  the  floor.  And  all  the  while  two  little 
boys,  his  sons,  clambered  over  those  legs,  patted  his 
cheeks,  pulled  his  nose,  and  poked  their  fingers  in  his 
eyes,  without  reprimand.  He  had  a  face  that  defied 
artistic  skill  to  soften  or  idealize.  It  was  capable  of 
few  expressions,  but  those  were  extremely  striking. 
When  in  repose,  his  face  was  dull,  heavy,  and  repel 
lent.  It  brightened  like  a  lit  lantern  when  animated. 
His  dull  eyes  would  fairly  sparkle  with  fun,  or  ex 
press  as  kindly  a  look  as  I  ever  saw,  when  moved  by 
some  matter  of  human  interest." 
Hon.  George  W.  Julian,  of  Indiana,  was  another  vis 
itor  to  the  Lincoln  home  in  January.  He  says :  "  I 
had  a  curiosity  to  see  the  famous  '  rail-splitter,'  as 
he  was  then  familiarly  called,  and  as  a  member-elect 
of  the  Thirty-seventh  Congress  I  desired  to  form  some 
acquaintance  with  the  man  who  was  to  play  so  con 
spicuous  a  part  in  the  impending  national  crisis.  On 
meeting  him  I  found  him  far  better  looking  than  the 
campaign  pictures  had  represented  him.  His  face, 
when  lighted  up  in  conversation,  was  not  unhandsome, 
and  the  kindly  and  winning  tones  of  his  voice  pleaded 
for  him  like  the  smile  that  played  about  his  rugged
254     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
features.  He  was  full  of  anecdote  and  humor,  and 
readily  found  his  way  to  the  hearts  of  those  who 
enjoyed  a  welcome  to  his  fireside.  His  face,  however, 
was  sometimes  marked  by  that  touching  expression  of 
sadness  which  became  so  noticeable  in  the  years  follow 
ing.  On  the  subject  of  slavery  I  was  gratified  to  find 
him  less  reserved  and  more  emphatic  than  I  had  ex 
pected.  I  was  much  pleased  with  our  first  Republican 
Executive,  and  I  returned  home  more  fully  inspired 
than  ever  with  the  purpose  to  sustain  him  to  the  ut 
most  in  facing  the  duties  of  his  great  office." 
The  wide  range  of  these  callers  and  their  diverse 
errands  are  illustrated  by  examples  furnished  by  Mr. 
Lamon.  Two  tall,  ungainly  fellows,  —  "  Suckers,"  as 
they  were  called,  —  entered  Lincoln's  room  one  day  while 
he  was  engaged  in  conversation  with  a  friend.  They 
lingered  bashfully  near  the  door,  and  Lincoln,  notic 
ing  their  embarrassment,  rose  and  said  good-naturedly, 
"  How  do  you  do,  my  good  fellows  ?  What  can  I  do 
for  you?  Will  you  sit  down?  "  The  spokesman  of 
the  pair,  the  shorter  of  the  two,  declined  to  sit,  and 
explained  the  object  of  the  call.  He  had  had  a  talk 
about  the  relative  height  of  Lincoln  and  his  com 
panion,  and  had  asserted  his  belief  that  they  were  of 
exactly  the  same  height.  He  had  come  in  to  verify  his 
judgment.  Lincoln  smiled,  then  got  his  cane,  and 
placing  the  end  of  it  upon  the  wall  said,  "  Here,  young 
man,  come  under  here !  "  The  young  man  came  under 
the  cane,  as  Lincoln  held  it,  and  when  it  was  perfectly 
adjusted  to  his  height  Lincoln  said,  "  Now  come  out 
and  hold  up  the  cane."  This  he  did,  while  Lincoln 
stepped  under.  Rubbing  his  head  back  and  forth  to 
see  that  it  worked  easily  under  the  measurement,  he 
stepped  out,  and  declared  that  the  young  man  had 
guessed  with  remarkable  accuracy  —  that  he  and  the 
tall  fellow  were  exactly  of  the  same  height.  Then
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     255 
he  shook  hands  with  them  and  sent  them  on  their  way. 
The  next  caller  was  a  very  different  person  —  an  old 
and  modestly  dressed  woman  who  tried  to  explain  that 
she  knew  Lincoln.  As  he  did  not  at  first  recognize 
her,  she  tried  to  recall  to  ,his  memory  certain  incidents 
connected  with  his  rides  upon  the  circuit  —  especially 
his  dining  at  her  house  upon  the  road  at  different  times. 
Then  he  remembered  her  and  her  home.  Having  fixed 
her  own  place  in  his  recollection,  she  tried  to  recall  to 
him  a  certain  scanty  dinner  of  bread  and  milk  that  he 
once  ate  at  her  house.  He  could  not  remember  it  — 
on  the  contrary,  he  only  remembered  that  he  had 
always  fared  well  at  her  house.  "  Well,"  said  she, 
"  one  day  you  came  along  after  we  had  got  through 
dinner,  and  we  had  eaten  up  everything,  and  I  could 
give  you  nothing  but  a  bowl  of  bread  and  milk;  you 
ate  it,  and  when  you  got  up  you  said  it  was  good 
enough  for  the  President  of  the  United  States."  The 
good  woman,  remembering  the  remark,  had  come  in 
from  the  country,  making  a  journey  of  eight  or  ten 
miles,  to  relate  to  Lincoln  this  incident,  which  in  her 
mind  had  doubtless  taken  the  form  of  prophecy.  Lin 
coln  placed  her  at  her  ease,  chatted  with  her  of  old 
times,  and  dismissed  her  in  the  most  happy  and  com 
placent  frame  of  mind. 
Among  the  judicious  friends  of  Lincoln  who  gave 
him  timely  counsel  at  this  important  epoch  of  his  life 
was  Judge  John  D.  Caton,  who,  though  a  Democrat, 
was  a  far-sighted  man  who  saw  plainly  the  tendency  of 
political  affairs  and  was  anxious  for  the  preservation 
of  the  Union.  "  I  met  Lincoln  in  Springfield,"  writes 
Judge  Caton,  "  and  we  had  a  conference  in  the  law- 
library.  I  told  him  it  was  plain  that  he  had  a  war  on 
his  hands ;  that  there  was  a  determination  on  the  part 
of  the  South  to  secede  from  the  Union,  and  that  there 
would  be  throughout  the  North  an  equal  determination
256     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
to  maintain  the  Union.  I  advised  him  to  avoid  bring 
ing  on  the  war  by  precipitate  action,  but  let  the  South 
erners  begin  it ;  to  forbear  as  long  as  forbearance  could 
be  tolerated,  in  order  to  unite  the  North  the  more  effec 
tually  to  support  his  hands  in  the  struggle  that  was 
certain  to  come ;  that  by  such  a  course  the  great  body 
of  the  people  of  the  North,  of  all  parties,  would  come 
to  his  support.  Mr.  Lincoln  listened  intently,  and  re 
plied  that  he  foresaw  that  the  struggle  was  inevitable, 
but  that  it  would  be  his  desire  and  effort  to  unite  the 
people  in  support  of  the  Government  and  for  the  main 
tenance  of  the  Union ;  that  he  was  aware  that  no  single 
party  could  sustain  him  successfully,  and  that  he  must 
rely  upon  the  great  masses  of  the  people  of  all  parties, 
and  he  would  try  to  pursue  such  a  course  as  would 
secure  their  support.  The  interview  continued  perhaps 
an  hour." 
Judge  David  Davis,  a  most  intimate  and  confidential 
friend  of  Lincoln,  states  that  the  latter  was  firmly  de 
termined  to  appoint  "  Democrats  and  Republicans  alike 
to  office."  Mr.  Lamon  corroborates  the  statement, 
pointedly  remarking :  "  He  felt  that  his  strength  lay  in 
conciliation  at  the  outset;  that  was  his  ruling  con 
viction  during  all  those  months  of  preparation  for  the 
great  task  before  him.  It  showed  itself  not  only  in 
the  appointments  which  he  sought  to  make  but  in  those 
which  he  did  make.  Harboring  no  jealousies,  enter 
taining  no  fears  concerning  his  personal  interests  in 
the  future,  he  called  around  him  the  most  powerful  of 
his  late  rivals  —  Seward,  Chase,  Bates  —  and  unhesi 
tatingly  gave  into  their  hands  powers  which  most  Presi 
dents  would  have  shrunk  from  committing  to  their 
equals,  and  much  more  to  their  superiors,  in  the  con 
duct  of  public  affairs."  In  a  noted  instance  where 
the  most  powerful  influence  was  brought  to  bear  upon 
Lincoln  to  induce  him  to  make  what  he  regarded  as  an
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     257 
unworthy  appointment,  he  exclaimed :  "  All  that  I  am 
in  the  world  —  the  Presidency  and  all  else  —  I  owe 
to  the  opinion  of  me  which  the  people  express  when 
they  call  me  '  Honest  Old  Abe.'  Now,  what  would 
they  think  of  their  honest  Abe  if  he  should  make  such 
an  appointment  as  the  one  proposed?  " 
Hon.  Leonard  Swett,  who  knew  Lincoln  from  1848 
to  the  time  of  his  death,  and  had  "traveled  the  cir 
cuit  "  with  him  in  Illinois,  relates  that  soon  after  the 
election  he  and  Judge  Davis  advised  Lincoln  to  consult 
Thurlow  Weed  regarding  the  formation  of  the  Cabinet 
and  on  political  affairs  generally.  "  Mr.  Lincoln  asked 
me,"  says  Mr.  Swett,  "  to  write  Mr.  Weed  and  invite 
him  to  a  conference  at  Lincoln's  house  in  Springfield. 
I  did  so,  and  the  result  was  that  Judge  Davis,  Thurlow 
Weed,  and  myself  spent  a  whole  day  with  him  in  dis 
cussing  the  men  and  measures  of  his  administration. 
At  that  meeting,  which  took  place  in  less  than  a  month 
after  Lincoln's  election,  or  early  in  December,  1860, 
Lincoln  became  convinced  that  war  was  imminent  be 
tween  the  North  and  the  South.  Mr.  Weed  was  a  very 
astute  man,  and  had  a  wonderful  knowledge  of  what 
was  going  on.  He  told  Lincoln  of  preparations  being 
made  in  the  Southern  States  that  could  mean  nothing 
less  than  war.  It  was.  a  serious  time  with  all  of  us, 
of  course,  but  Lincoln  took  it  with  the  imperturbability 
that  always  distinguished  him." 
The  account  given  by  Thurlow  Weed,  the  veteran 
New  York  editor  and  journalist,  of  his  visit  to  Lincoln 
on  this  occasion  is  of  peculiar  interest.  Mr.  Weed 
remained  in  Springfield  two  or  three  days  in  close  con 
sultation  with  the  President-elect,  the  formation  of  the 
new  Cabinet  being  the  subject  principally  discussed. 
After  expressing  gratification  at  his  election,  and  an 
apprehension  of  the  dangers  which  threatened  the  in 
coming  administration,  says  Mr.  Weed,  in  his  autobi-
258     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
ography,  "  Mr.  Lincoln  remarked,  smiling,  that  he  sup 
posed  I  had  had  some  experience  in  cabinet-making; 
that  he  had  a  job  on  hand,  and  as  he  had  never  learned 
that  trade  he  was  disposed  to  avail  himself  of  the  sug 
gestions  of  friends.  The  question  thus  opened  became 
the  subject  of  conversation,  at  intervals,  during  that 
and  the  following  day.  I  say  at  intervals,  because 
many  hours  were  consumed  in  talking  of  the  public 
men  connected  with  former  administrations,  inter 
spersed,  illustrated,  and  seasoned  pleasantly  with  Mr. 
Lincoln's  stories,  anecdotes,  etc.  And  here  I  feel  called 
upon  to  vindicate  Mr.  Lincoln,  as  far  as  my  oppor 
tunities  and  observation  go,  from  the  frequent  impu 
tation  of  telling  indelicate  and  ribald  stories.  I  saw 
much  of  him  during  his  whole  Presidential  term,  with 
familiar  friends  and  alone,  when  he  talked  without 
restraint ;  but  I  ne'ver  heard  him  use  a  profane  or 
indecent  word,  or  tell  a  story  that  might  not  be  re 
peated  in  the  presence  of  ladies." 
"  Mr.  Lincoln  observed,"  continues  Mr.  Weed,  "  that 
the  making  of  a  Cabinet,  now  that  he  had  it  to  do,  was 
by  no  means  as  easy  as  he  had  supposed ;  that  he  had, 
even  before  the  result  of  the  election  was  known,  as 
suming  the  probability  of  success,  fixed  upon  the  two 
leading  members  of  his  Cabinet,  but  that  in  looking 
about  for  suitable  men  to  fill  the  other  departments 
he  had  been  much  embarrassed,  partly  from  his  want 
of  acquaintance  with  the  prominent  men  of  the  day, 
and  partly  because  he  believed  that  while  the  popu 
lation  of  the  country  had  immensely  increased  really 
great  men  were  scarcer  than  they  used  to  be.  .  .  .  As 
the  conversation  progressed,  Lincoln  remarked  that  he 
intended  to  invite  Governor  Seward  to  take  the  State 
Department  and  Governor  Chase  the  Treasury  De 
partment,  remarking  that  aside  from  their  long  expe 
rience  in  public  affairs  and  their  eminent  fitness  they
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     259 
were  prominently  before  the  people  and  the  convention 
as  competitors  for  the  Presidency,  each  having  higher 
claims  than  his  own  for  the  place  which  he  was  to 
occupy.  On  naming  Hon.  Gideon  Welles  as  the  man 
he  thought  of  as  the  representative  of  New  England 
in  the  Cabinet,  I  remarked  that  I  thought  he  could 
find  several  New  England  gentlemen  whose  selection 
for  a  place  in  his  Cabinet  would  be  more  acceptable 
to  the  people  of  New  England.  '  But,'  said  Mr.  Lin 
coln,  *  we  must  remember  that  the  Republican  party 
is  constituted  of  two  elements,  and  that  we  must  have 
men  of  Democratic  as  well  as  of  Whig  antecedents  in 
the  Cabinet.'  ...  In  the  course  of  our  conversations 
Mr.  Lincoln  remarked  that  it  was  particularly  pleas 
ant  to  him  to  reflect  that  he  was  coming  into  office 
unembarrassed  by  promises.  He  owed,  he  supposed, 
his  exemption  from  importunities  to  the  circumstance 
that  his  name  as  a  candidate  was  but  a  short  time 
before  the  people,  and  that  only  a  few  sanguine  friends 
anticipated  the  possibility  of  his  nomination.  '  I  have 
not,'  said  he,  *  promised  an  office  to  any  man,  nor 
have  I,  but  in  a  single  instance,  mentally  committed 
myself  to  an  appointment.'  ' 
"  In  this  way  two  days  passed  very  pleasantly," 
says  Mr.  Weed,  "  the  conversation  being  alternately 
earnest  and  playful.  I  wish  it  were  possible  to  give, 
in  Mr.  Lincoln's  amusing  but  quaint  manner,  the  many 
stories,  anecdotes,  and  witticisms  with  which  he  inter 
larded  and  enlivened  what  with  almost  any  of  his 
predecessors  in  the  high  office  of  President  would  have 
been  a  grave,  dry  consultation.  The  great  merit  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  stories,  like  Captain  Bunsby's  opinion, 
'  lays  in  the  application  on  it.'  They  always  and 
exactly  suited  the  occasion  and  the  object,  and  none 
to  which  I  ever  listened  seemed  far-fetched  or  point 
less.  I  will  attempt  to  repeat  one  of  them.  If  I
260     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
have  an  especial  fondness  for  any  particular  luxury, 
it  manifests  itself  in  a  remarkable  way  when  properly 
made  December  sausages  are  placed  before  me.  While 
at  breakfast,  Judge  Davis,  noticing  that,  after  having 
been  bountifully  served  with  sausage,  like  Oliver  Twist 
I  wanted  some  more,  said,  '  You  seem  fond  of  our 
Illinois  sausages.'  To  which  I  responded  affirmatively, 
adding  that  I  thought  the  article  might  be  relied  on 
where  pork  was  cheaper  than  dogs.  '  That,'  said  Mr. 
Lincoln,  f  reminds  me  of  what  occurred  down  at  Joliet, 
where  a  popular  grocer  supplied  all  the  villagers  with 
sausages.  One  Saturday  evening,  when  his  grocery 
was  filled  with  customers  for  whom  he  and  his  boys 
were  busily  engaged  in  weighing  sausages,  a  neigh 
bor  with  whom  he  had  had  a  violent  quarrel  that  day, 
came  into  the  grocery  and  made  his  way  up  to  the 
counter  holding  by  the  tail  two  enormous  dead  cats 
which  he  deliberately  threw  on  to  the  counter,  saying, 
'  This  makes  seven  to-day.  I  '11  call  around  Monday 
and  get  my  money  for  them.'  " 
During  the  months  intervening  between  his  elec 
tion  and  his  departure  for  Washington,  Lincoln  main 
tained  a  keen  though  quiet  watchfulness  of  the  threat 
ening  aspect  of  affairs  at  the  national  capital  and 
throughout  the  South.  He  was  careful  not  to  commit 
himself  by  needless  utterances  as  to  his  future  policy; 
but  in  all  his  demeanor,  as  a  friend  said,  he  displayed 
the  firmness  and  determination,  without  the  temper,  of 
Jackson.  In  December  following  his  election  he  wrote 
the  following  letters  to  his  intimate  friend,  Hon.  E.  B. 
Washburne,  then  a  member  of  Congress  from  Illinois : 
SPRINGFIELD,  ILL.,  Dec.  13,  1860. 
HON.   E.   B.   WASHBURNE  —  My   Dear   Sir:    Your 
long  letter  received.  Prevent,  as  far  as  possible,  any
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     261 
of  our  friends  from  demoralizing  themselves  and  our 
cause  by  entertaining  propositions  for  compromise  of 
any  sort  on  the  slavery  extension.  There  is  no  possible 
compromise  upon  it  but  which  puts  us  under  again, 
and  leaves  us  all  our  work  to  do  over  again.  Whether 
it  be  a  Missouri  line,  or  Eli  Thayer's  Popular  Sover 
eignty,  it  is  all  the  same.  Let  either  be  done,  and  im 
mediately  filibustering  and  extending  slavery  recom 
mences.  On  that  point  hold  firm,  as  with  a  chain  of 
steel.  Yours  as  ever,  A.  LINCOLN. 
SPRINGFIELD,  ILL.,  Dec.  21,  1860. 
HON.  E.  B.  WASHBURNE  —  My  Dear  Sir:  Last 
night  I  received  your  letter  giving  an  account  of  your 
interview  with  General  Scott,  and  for  which  I  thank 
you.  Please  present  my  respects  to  the  General,  and 
tell  him  confidentially  that  I  shall  be  obliged  to  him 
to  be  as  well  prepared  as  he  can  to  either  hold  or  re 
take  the  forts,  as  the  case  may  require,  at  and  after 
the  inauguration.  Yours  as  ever,  A.  LINCOLN. 
The  Southern  States,  led  on  by  South  Carolina, 
which  formally  severed  its  connection  with  the  Union 
November  17,  1860  (only  eleven  days  after  Lincoln's 
election),  were  preparing  to  dissolve  their  alliance  with 
the  Free  States.  Mississippi  passed  the  ordinance  of 
secession  January  9,  1861 ;  Florida  followed  on  the 
10th;  Alabama  on  the  llth;  Georgia  on  the  19th; 
Louisiana  on  the  25th;  and  Texas  on  the  1st  day  of 
February.  The  plans  of  the  seceders  went  on,  un 
molested  by  the  Buchanan  administration.  South 
erners  in  the  Cabinet  and  in  Congress  conspired  to  de 
plete  the  resources  of  the  Government,  leaving  it  help 
less  to  contest  the  assumptions  of  the  revolted  States. 
The  treasury  was  deliberately  bankrupted;  the  ships 
of  the  navy  were  banished  to  distant  ports ;  the  North 
ern  arsenals  were  rifled  to  furnish  arms  for  the  seceded
262     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
States ;  the  United  States  forts  and  armaments  on  the 
Southern  coast  were  delivered  into  the  hands  of  the 
enemy,  with  the  exception  of  Fort  Sumter,  which  was 
gallantly  held  by  Major  Robert  Anderson.  While 
this  system  of  bold  and  unscrupulous  treachery  was 
carried  on  by  men  in  the  highest  places  of  trust,  the 
chief  executive  of  the  nation  remained  a  passive  spec 
tator.  The  South  was  in  open  rebellion,  and  the  North 
was  powerless  to  interfere.  The  weeks  prior  to  the 
inauguration  of  the  new  administration  dragged  slowly 
along,  each  day  adding  fresh  cause  for  anxiety  and 
alarm. 
Amidst  these  portentous  scenes  Lincoln,  watching 
them  from  a  distance,  maintained  his  calm  and  vigilant 
attitude.  No  one  knew  better  than  he  the  significance 
of  these  ominous  events  that  were  taking  place  at  the 
nation's  capital  and  in  the  disaffected  States;  but 
there  was  nothing  he  could  do  about  them.  His  time 
for  action  had  not  yet  come.  He  said  little,  but 
enough  to  show  unmistakably  what  he  thought  of  the 
situation  and  what  course  he  had  resolved  upon  to 
meet  it.  As  early  as  December  17,  1860  —  a  little 
more  than  a  month  after  his  election  —  in  writing  to 
Thurlow  Weed,  he  said:  "  My  opinion  is  that  no  State 
can  in  any  way  get  out  of  the  Union  without  the  con 
sent  of  the  other  States;  and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
President  to  run  the  machine  as  it  is."  He  had  been 
made  the  pilot  of  the  ship  of  State,  and  his  duty  and 
purpose  were  to  save  the  vessel.1  Upon  this  mighty 
task  were  concentrated  all  the  powers  of  his  intellect 
and  will;  and  through  all  the  desperate  voyage  that 
followed  he  never  wavered  or  faltered  in  his  course, 
1  On  the  very  day  of  Lincoln's  arrival  in  Washington,  he  said  to 
some  prominent  men  who  had  called  upon  him  at  his  hotel,  "  As  the 
country  has  placed  me  at  the  helm  of  the  ship,  I  '11  try  to  steer  her 
through."
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     263 
from  the  time  of  his  supreme  resolve,  made  in  the  quiet 
of  his  country  home,  to  the  hour  when 
t"  From  fearful  trip  the  victor  ship  came  in  with  object 
won  "  — 
but  with  her  more  than  heroic  but  now  victorious  Cap 
tain  "  fallen  cold  and  dead  "  upon  her  deck. 
As  the  winter  wore  away,  and  the  time  for  Lincoln's 
inauguration  as  President  drew  near,  he  began  making 
preparation  for  leaving  the  familiar  scenes  where  his 
life  had  thus  far  been  spent.  Early,  in  February  he 
made  a  parting  visit  to  his  relatives  in  Coles  County,  to 
whom  in  this  hour  of  grave  trial  and  anxiety  his  heart 
turned  with  fresh  yearning.  He  spent  a  night  at 
Charleston,  where  his  cousin  Dennis  Hanks,  and  Mrs. 
Colonel  Chapman,  a  daughter  of  Dennis,  resided. 
We  are  told  that  "  the  people  crowded  by  hundreds 
to  see  him ;  and  he  was  serenaded  by  '  both  the  string 
and  brass  bands  of  the  town,  but  declined  making  a 
speech."  The  following  morning  he  passed  on  to 
Farmington,  to  the  home  of  his  beloved  step-mother, 
who  was  living  with  her  daughter,  Mrs.  Moore.  Mr. 
Lamon  relates  that  "  the  meeting  between  him  and  the 
old  lady  was  of  a  most  affectionate  and  tender  char 
acter.  She  fondled  him  as  her  own  '  Abe,'  and  he  her 
as  his  own  mother.  Then  Lincoln  and  Colonel  Chap 
man  drove  to  the  house  of  John  Hall,  who  lived  on  the 
old  *  Lincoln  farm '  where  Abe  split  the  celebrated 
rails  and  fenced  in  the  little  clearing  in  1830.  Thence 
they  went  to  the  spot  where  Lincoln's  father  was 
buried.  The  grave  was  unmarked  and  utterly  neg 
lected.  Lincoln  said  he  wanted  to  '  have  it  enclosed, 
and  a  suitable  tombstone  erected,'  "  and  gave  the  neces 
sary  instructions  for  this  purpose.  "  We  then  re 
turned,"  says  Colonel  Chapman,  "  to  Farmington, 
where  we  found  a  large  crowd  of  citizens  —  nearly
264     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
all  old  acquaintances  —  waiting  to  see  him.  His  re 
ception  was  very  enthusiastic,  and  seemed  to  gratify 
him  very  much.  After  taking  dinner  at  his  step 
sister's  (Mrs.  Moore's),  he  returned  to  Charleston. 
Our  conversation  during  the  trip  was  mostly  concern 
ing  family  affairs.  On  the  way  down  to  Farming- 
ton  Mr.  Lincoln  spoke  to  me  of  his  step-mother  in  the 
most  affectionate  manner;  said  she  had  been  his  best 
friend,  and  that  no  son  could  love  a  mother  more  than 
he  loved  her.  He  also  told  me  of  the  condition  of 
his  father's  family  at  the  time  he  married  his  step 
mother,  and  of  the  change  she  made  in  the  family,  and 
of  the  encouragement  he  had  received  from  her.  .  .  . 
He  spoke  of  his  father,  and  related  some  amusing  in 
cidents  of  the  bull-dog's  biting  the  old  man  on  his 
return  from  New  Orleans ;  of  the  old  man's  escape, 
when  a  boy,  from  an  Indian  who  was  shot  by  his  uncle 
Mordecai,  etc.  He  spoke  of  his  uncle  Mordecai  as 
being  a  man  of  very  great  natural  gifts.  At  Charles 
ton  we  found  the  house  crowded  by  people  wishing 
to  see  him.  The  crowd  finally  became  so  great  that 
it  was  decided  to  hold  a  public  reception  at  the  Town 
Hall  that  evening  at  seven  o'clock;  until  then  Lin 
coln  wished  to  be  left  with  relatives  and  friends.  At 
the  Town  Hall  large  numbers  of  people  from  the  town 
and  surrounding  country,  irrespective  of  party,  called 
to  see  him.  His  reception  by  his  old  acquaintances 
was  very  gratifying  to  him." 
A  characteristic  anecdote  showing  Lincoln's  friend 
ship  and  love  of  old  associations  is  told  among  those 
relating  to  his  last  days  at  Springfield.  When  he 
was  about  to  leave  for  Washington  he  went  to  the 
dingy  little  law  office,  sat  down  on  the  couch,  and  said 
to  his  law-partner,  Herndon,  "  Billy,  you  and  I  have 
been  together  nearly  twenty  years,  and  have  never 
'  passed  a  word.'  Will  you  let  my  name  stay  on  the
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     265 
old  sign  till  I  come  back  from  Washington?  "  The 
tears  started  to  Mr.  Herndon's  eyes.  He  put  out 
his  hand.  "  Mr.  Lincoln,"  said  he,  "  I  will  never  have 
any  other  partner  while  you  live  " ;  and  to  the  day 
of  the  assassination  all  the  doings  of  the  firm  were 
in  the  name  of  "  Lincoln  &  Herndon." 
Governor  Bross,  of  Illinois,  relates  that  he  was  with 
Lincoln  at  Springfield  on  the  day  before  he  left  for 
Washington.  "  We  were  walking  slowly  to  his  home 
from  some  place  where  we  had  met,  and  the  condition 
and  prospects  of  the  country,  and  his  vast  respon 
sibility  in  assuming  the  position  of  President,  were  the 
subjects  of  his  thoughts.  These  were  discussed  with 
a  breadth  and  anxiety  full  of  that  pathos  peculiar 
to  Mr.  Lincoln  in  his  thoughtful  moods.  He  seemed 
to  have  a  thorough  prescience  of  the  dangers  through 
which  his  administration  was  to  pass.  No  President, 
he  said,  had  ever  had  before  him  such  vast  and  far- 
reaching  responsibilities.  He  regarded  war  —  long, 
bitter,  and  dreadful  —  as  almost  sure  to  come.  He 
distinctly  and  reverently  placed  his  hopes  for  the 
result  in  the  strength  and  guidance  of  Him  on  whom 
Washington  relied  in  the  darkest  hours  of  the  Revo 
lution.  He  would  take  the  place  to  which  Providence 
and  his  countrymen  had  called  him,  and  do  the  best 
he  could  for  the  integrity  and  the  welfare  of  the 
Republic.  For  himself,  he  scarcely  expected  ever  to 
see  Illinois  again." 
On  the  morning  of  the  llth  of  February,  1861, 
Lincoln  left  his  home  in  Springfield  for  the  scene  where 
he  was  to  spend  the  most  anxious,  toilsome,  and  painful 
years  of  his  life.  An  elaborate  programme  had  been 
prepared  for  his  journey  to  Washington,  which  was  to 
conduct  him  through  the  principal  cities  of  Indiana, 
Ohio,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  and  Mary 
land,  and  consume  much  of  the  time  intervening  before
266     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
the  4th  of  March.  Special  trains,  preceded  by  pilot- 
engines,  were  prepared  for  his  accommodation.  He 
was  accompanied  at  his  departure  by  his  wife  and  three 
sons,  and  a  party  of  friends,  including  Governor  Yates, 
ex-Governor  Moore,  Dr.  W.  M.  Wallace  (his  brother- 
in-law),  N.  B.  Judd,  O.  H.  Browning,  Ward  H.  Lamon, 
David  Davis,  Col.  E.  E.  Ellsworth,  and  John  M.  Hay 
and  J.  G.  Nicolay,  the  two  latter  to  be  his  private 
secretaries.  Mr.  Lamon  thus  graphically  describes  the 
incidents  of  his  leave-taking :  "  It  was  a  gloomy  day ; 
heavy  clouds  floated  overhead,  and  a  cold  rain  was 
falling.  Long  before  eight  o'clock  a  great  mass  of 
people  had  collected  at  the  railway  station.  At  pre 
cisely  five  minutes  before  eight,  Mr.  Lincoln,  pre 
ceded  by  Mr.  Wood,  emerged  from  a  private  room  in 
the  depot  building,  and  passed  slowly  to  the  car,  the 
people  falling  back  respectfully  on  either  side,  and  as 
many  as  possible  shaking  his  hands.  Having  reached 
the  train,  he  ascended  the  rear  platform,  and,  facing 
about  to  the  throng  which  had  closed  around  him,  drew 
himself  up  to  his  full  height,  removed  his  hat,  and 
stood  for  several  seconds  in  profound  silence.  His  eye 
roved  sadly  over  that  sea  of  upturned  faces,  as  if 
seeking  to  read  in  them  the  sympathy  and  friendship 
which  he  never  needed  more  than  then.  There  was 
an  unusual  quiver  in  his  lip,  and  a  still  more  unusual 
tear  on  his  shriveled  cheek.  His  solemn  manner,  his 
long  silence,  were  as  full  of  melancholy  eloquence  as 
any  words  he  could  have  uttered.  What  did  he  think 
of?  Of  the  mighty  changes  which  had  lifted  him  from 
the  lowest  to  the  highest  estate  on  earth?  Of  the 
weary  road  which  had  brought  him  to  this  lofty 
summit?  Of  his  poor  mother  lying  beneath  the  tan 
gled  underbrush  in  a  distant  forest?  Of  that  other 
grave  in  the  quiet  Concord  cemetery?  Whatever  the 
character  of  his  thoughts,  it  is  evident  that  they  were
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     267 
retrospective  and  sad.  To  those  who  were  anxiously 
waiting  to  catch  his  words  it  seemed  long  until  he 
had  mastered  his  feelings  sufficiently  to  speak.  At 
length  he  began,  in  a  husky  voice,  and  slowly  and  im 
pressively  delivered  his  farewell  to  his  neighbors. 
Imitating  his  example,  many  in  the  crowd  stood  with 
heads  uncovered  in  the  fast-falling  rain."  Abraham 
Lincoln  spoke  none  but  true  and  sincere  words,  and 
none  more  true  and  heartfelt  ever  fell  from  his  lips 
than  these,  so  laden  with  pathos,  with  humility,  with 
a  craving  for  the  sympathy  of  his  friends  and  the 
people,  and  for  help  above  and  beyond  all  earthly  power 
and  love. 
My  Friends :  —  No  one  not  in  my  position  can  real 
ize  the  sadness  I  feel  at  this  parting.  To  this  people 
I  owe  all  that  I  am.  Here  I  have  lived  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century.  Here  my  children  were  born, 
and  here  one  of  them  lies  buried.  I  know  not  how  soon 
I  shall  see  you  again.  I  go  to  assume  a  task  more 
difficult  than  that  which  has  devolved  upon  any  other 
man  since  the  days  of  Washington.  He  never  would 
have  succeeded  except  for  the  aid  of  Divine  Providence, 
upon  which  he  at  all  times  relied.  I  feel  that  I  cannot 
succeed  without  the  same  Divine  blessing  which  sus 
tained  him ;  and  on  the  same  Almighty  Being  I  place 
my  reliance  for  support.  And  I  hope  you,  my  friends, 
will  all  pray  that  I  may  receive  that  Divine  assistance, 
without  which  I  cannot  succeed,  but  with  which  suc 
cess  is  certain.  Again  I  bid  you  an  affectionate 
farewell. 
The  route  chosen  for  the  journey  to  Washington, 
as  has  been  stated,  was  a  circuitous  one.  It  seems  to 
have  been  Lincoln's  desire  to  meet  personally  the 
people  of  the  great  Northern  States  upon  whose  devo 
tion  and  loyalty  he  prophetically  felt  he  must  depend 
for  the  salvation  of  the  Republic.  Everywhere  he
268     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
met  the  warmest  and  most  generous  greetings  from 
the  throngs  assembled  at  the  railway  stations  in  the 
various  cities  through  which  he  passed.  At  Indianapo 
lis,  where  the  first  important  halt  was  made,  cannon 
announced  the  arrival  of  the  party,  and  a  royal  wel 
come  was  accorded  the  distinguished  traveler.  In 
this,  as  in  the  other  cities  at  which  he  stopped,  Lin 
coln  made  a  brief  address  to  the  people.  His  remarks 
were  well  considered  and  temperate ;  his  manner  was 
serious,  his  expressions  thoughtful  and  full  of  feeling. 
He  entreated  the  people  to  be  calm  and  patient;  to 
stand  by  the  principles  of  liberty  inwrought  into  the 
fabric  of  the  Constitution;  to  have  faith  in  the 
strength  and  reality  of  the  Government,  and  faith  in 
his  purpose  to  discharge  his  duties  honestly  and  im 
partially.  He  referred  continually  to  his  trust  in  the 
Almighty  Ruler  of  the  Universe  to  guide  the  nation 
safely  out  of  its  present  peril  and  perplexity.  "  I 
judge,"  he  said  at  Columbus,  "  that  all  we  want  is  time 
and  patience,  and  a  reliance  in  that  God  who  has  never 
forsaken  His  people."  Again,  he  said:  "Let  the 
people  on  both  sides  keep  their  self-possession,  and 
just  as  other  clouds  have  cleared  away  in  due  time,  so 
will  this;  and  this  great  nation  shall  continue  to 
prosper  as  heretofore."  Alluding  more  definitely  to 
his  purposes  for  the  future,  he  declared :  "  I  shall  do 
all  that  may  be  in  my  power  to  promote  a  peaceful 
settlement  of  all  our  difficulties.  The  man  does  not  live 
who  is  more  devoted  to  peace  than  I  am  —  none  who 
would  do  more  to  preserve  it.  But  it  may  be  necessary 
to  put  the  foot  down  firmly." 
At  the  conclusion  of  Lincoln's  speech  at  Columbus, 
a  tremendous  crowd  surged  forward  to  shake  his  hand. 
Says  Dr.  Holland :  "  Every  man  in  the  crowd  was 
anxious  to  wrench  the  hand  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  He 
finally  gave  both  hands  to  the  work,  with  great  good
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     269 
nature.  To  quote  one  of  the  reports  of  the  occasion: 
'  People  plunged  at  his  arms  with  frantic  enthusiasm, 
and  all  the  infinite  variety  of  shakes,  from  the  wild  and 
irrepressible  pump-handle  movement  to  the  dead  grip, 
was  executed  upon  the  devoted  dexter  and  sinister  of 
the  President.  Some  glanced  at  his  face  as  they 
grasped  his  hand;  others  invoked  the  blessings  of 
heaven  upon  him ;  others  affectionately  gave  him  their 
last  gasping  assurance  of  devotion ;  others,  bewildered 
and  furious,  with  hats  crushed  over  their  eyes,  seized 
his  hands  in  a  convulsive  grasp,  and  passed  on  as  if 
they  had  not  the  remotest  idea  who,  what,  or  where 
they  were.'  The  President  at  last  escaped,  and  took 
refuge  in  the  Governor's  residence,  although  he  held  a 
levee  at  the  State  House  in  the  evening,  where  in  a 
more  quiet  way  he  met  many  prominent  citizens." 
At  Cincinnati,  where  Lincoln  had  had  so  distasteful 
an  experience  a  few  years  before,  a  magnificent  ovation 
greeted  him.  The  scene  is  described  by  one  who  wit 
nessed  it  —  Hon.  William  Henry  Smith,  at  that  time 
a  resident  of  Cincinnati.  "  It  was  on  the  13th  of 
February  that  Mr.  Lincoln  reached  the  Queen  City. 
The  day  was  mild  for  mid-winter,  but  the  sky  was 
overcast  with  clouds,  emblematic  of  the  gloom  that 
filled  the  hearts  of  the  unnumbered  thousands  who 
thronged  the  streets  and  covered  the  house-tops.  Lin 
coln  rode  in  an  open  carriage,  standing  erect  with 
uncovered  head,  and  steadying  himself  by  holding  on 
to  a  board  fastened  to  the  front  part  of  the  vehicle. 
A  more  uncomfortable  ride  than  this,  over  the  boul- 
dered  streets  of  Cincinnati,  cannot  well  be  imagined. 
Perhaps  a  journey  over  the  broken  roads  of  Eastern 
Russia,  in  a  tarantass,  would  secure  to  the  traveler  as 
great  a  degree  of  discomfort.  Mr.  Lincoln  bore  it 
with  characteristic  patience.  His  face  was  very  sad, 
but  he  seemed  to  take  a  deep  interest  in  everything.
270     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
It  was  not  without  due  consideration  that  the  Presi 
dent-elect  touched  on  the  border  of  a  slave  State  on 
his  way  to  the  capital.  In  his  speech  in  reply  to  the 
Mayor  of  Cincinnati,  recognizing  the  fact  that  among 
his  auditors  were  thousands  of  Kentuckians,  he  ad 
dressed  them  directly,  calling  them  '  Friends,'  '  Breth 
ren.'  He  reminded  them  that  when  speaking  in  Fifth 
Street  Market  square  in  1859  he  had  promised  that 
when  the  Republicans  came  into  power  they  would 
treat  the  Southern  or  slave-holding  people  as  Wash 
ington,  Jefferson,  and  Madison  treated  them;  that 
they  would  interfere  with  their  institutions  in  no  way, 
but  abide  by  all  and  every  compromise  of  the  Con 
stitution,  and  '  recognize  and  bear  in  mind  always  that 
you  have  as  good  hearts  in  your  bosoms  as  other 
people,  or  as  we  claim  to  have,  and  treat  you  accord 
ingly.'  Then,  to  emphasize  this,  he  said  —  in  a  pas 
sage  omitted  by  Mr.  Raymond  and  all  other  biog 
raphers  of  Lincoln  — 
And  now,  fellow-citizens  of  Ohio,  have  you  who  agree 
in  political  sentiment  with  him  who  now  addresses  you 
ever  entertained  other  sentiments  towards  our  breth 
ren  of  Kentucky  than  those  I  have  expressed  to  you? 
[Loud  and  repeated  cries  of  *  No!  '  '  No!  ']  If  not, 
then  why  shall  we  not,  as  heretofore,  be  recognized  and 
acknowledged  as  brethren  again,  living  in  peace  and 
harmony,  one  with  another?  [Cries  of  '  We  mil!  '] 
I  take  your  response  as  the  most  reliable  evidence  that 
it  may  be  so,  along  with  other  evidence,  trusting  to  the 
good  sense  of  the  American  people,  on  all  sides  of  all 
rivers  in  America,  under  the  Providence  of  God,  who 
has  never  deserted  us,  that  we  shall  again  be  brethren, 
forgetting  all  parties  —  ignoring  all  parties. 
"  This  statesmanlike  expression  of  conservative 
opinion,"  continues  Mr.  Smith,  "  alarmed  some  of  the
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     271 
Republicans,  who  feared  that  the  new  President  might 
sell  out  his  party;  and  steps  were  taken,  later  in  the 
day,  to  remind  him  of  certain  principles  deemed  funda 
mental  by  those  who  had  been  attracted  to  the  party 
of  Freedom.  The  sequel  will  show  how  this  was  done, 
and  how  successfully  Mr.  Lincoln  met  the  unexpected 
attack.  In  the  evening  I  called,  with  other  citizens,  at 
Mr.  Lincoln's  rooms  at  the  Burnet  House  to  pay  my 
respects.  Mr.  Lincoln  had  put  off  the  melancholy 
mood  that  appeared  to  control  him  during  the  day,  and 
was  entertaining  those  present  with  genial,  even  lively, 
conversation.  The  pleasant  entertainment  was  inter 
rupted  by  the  announcement  that  a  delegation  of 
German  workingmen  were  about  to  serenade  Mr.  Lin 
coln.  Proceeding  to  the  balcony,  there  were  seen  the 
faces  of  nearly  two  thousand  of  the  substantial  Ger 
man  citizens  who  had  voted  for  Mr.  Lincoln  because 
they  believed  him  to  be  a  stout  champion  of  free  labor 
and  free  homesteads.  The  remarks  of  their  spokesman, 
Frederick  Oberkleine,  set  forth  in  clear  terms  what 
they  expected.  He  said: 
We,  the  German  free  workingmen  of  Cincinnati,  avail 
ourselves  of  this  opportunity  to  assure  you,  our  chosen 
Chief  Magistrate,  of  our  sincere  and  heartfelt  regard. 
You  earned  our  votes  as  the  champion  of  Free  Labor 
and  Free  Homesteads.  Our  vanquished  opponents 
have,  in  recent  times,  made  frequent  use  of  the  terms 
"  Workingmen  "  and  "  Workingmen's  Meetings,"  in 
order  to  create  an  impression  that  the  mass  of  work 
ingmen  were  in  favor  of  compromises  between  the  in 
terests  of  free  labor  and  slave  labor,  by  which  the  vic 
tory  just  won  would  be  turned  into  a  defeat.  This 
is  a  despicable  device  of  dishonest  men.  We  spurn  such 
compromises.  We  firmly  adhere  to  the  principles  which 
directed  our  votes  in  your  favor.  We  trust  that  you, 
the  self-reliant  because  self-made  man,  will  uphold  the
272     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
Constitution  and  the  laws  against  secret  treachery  and 
avowed  treason.  If  to  this  end  you  should  be  in  need 
of  men,  the  German  free  workingmen,  with  others,  will 
rise  as  one  man  at  your  call,  ready  to  risk  their  lives  in 
the  effort  to  maintain  the  victory  already  won  by  free 
dom  over  slavery. 
"  This  was  bringing  the  rugged  issue  boldly  to  the 
front,  and  challenging  the  President-elect  to  meet  the 
issue  or  risk  the  loss  of  the  support  of  an  important 
section  of  his  own  party.  Oberkleine  spoke  with  great 
effect,  but  the  remarks  were  hardly  his  own.  Some 
abler  man  had  put  into  his  mouth  these  significant 
words.  Mr.  Lincoln  replied,  very  deliberately,  but 
without  hesitation,  as  follows : 
MR.  CHAIRMAN  :  —  I  thank  you,  and  those  you  repre 
sent,  for  the  compliment  paid  me  by  the  tender  of 
this  address.  In  so  far  as  there  is  an  allusion  to  our 
present  national  difficulty,  and  the  suggestion  of  the 
views  of  the  gentlemen  who  present  this  address,  I 
beg  you  will  excuse  me  from  entering  particularly  upon 
it.  I  deem  it  due  to  myself  and  the  whole  country,  in 
the  present  extraordinary  condition  of  the  country 
and  of  public  opinion,  that  I  should  wait  and  see  the 
last  development  of  public  opinion  before  I  give  my 
views  or  express  myself  at  the  time  of  the  inaugura 
tion.  I  hope  at  that  time  to  be  false  to  nothing  you 
have  been  taught  to"  expect  of  me.  [Cheers.] 
I  agree  with  you,  Mr.  Chairman,  and  with  the  ad 
dress  of  your  constituents,  in  the  declaration  that 
workingmen  are  the  basis  of  all  governments.  That 
remark  is  due  to  them  more  than  to  any  other  class, 
for  the  reason  that  there  are  more  of  them  than  of 
any  other  class.  And  as  your  address  is  presented  to 
me  not  only  on  behalf  of  workingmen,  but  especially 
of  Germans,  I  may  say  a  word  as  to  classes.  I  hold 
that  the  value  of  life  is  to  improve  one's  condition. 
Whatever  is  calculated  to  advance  the  condition  of
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     273 
the  honest,  struggling  laboring  man,  so  far  as  my 
judgment  will  enable  me  to  judge  of  a  correct  thing, 
I  am  for  that  thing. 
An  allusion  has  been  made  to  the  Homestead  Law. 
I  think  it  worthy  of  consideration,  and  that  the  wild 
lands  of  the  country  should  be  distributed  so  that 
every  man  should  have  the  means  and  opportunity  of 
benefiting  his  condition.  [Cheers.]  I  have  said  that 
I  do  not  desire  to  enter  into  details,  nor  will  I. 
In  regard  to  Germans  and  foreigners,  I  esteem  for 
eigners  no  better  than  other  people  —  nor  any  worse. 
[Laughter  and  cheers.]  They  are  all  of  the  great 
family  of  men,  and  if  there  is  one  shackle  upon  any 
of  them  it  would  be  far  better  to  lift  the  load  from 
them  than  to  pile  additional  loads  upon  them. 
[Cheers.]  And  inasmuch  as  the  continent  of  America 
is  comparatively  a  new  country,  and  the  other  coun 
tries  of  the  world  are  old  countries,  there  is  more  room 
here,  comparatively  speaking,  than  there  is  elsewhere ; 
and  if  they  can  better  their  condition  by  leaving  their 
old  homes,  there  is  nothing  in  my  heart  to  forbid  them 
coming,  and  I  bid  them  all  God  speed.  [Cheers.] 
Again,  gentlemen,  thanking  you  for  your  address,  I 
bid  you  good  night. 
"  If  anyone,"  says  Mr.  Smith,  "  had  expected  to 
trap  Mr.  Lincoln  into  imprudent  utterances,  or  the 
indulgence  of  the  rhetoric  of  a  demagogue,  this  ad 
mirable  reply  showed  how  completely  they  were  disap 
pointed.  The  preservation  of  this  speech  is  due  to 
my  accidental  presence.  The  visitation  of  the  Ger 
mans  was  not  on  the  programme,  and  none  of  the 
representatives  of  the  press  charged  with  the  duty  of 
reporting  the  events  of  the  day  were  present.  Ob 
serving  this,  I  took  short-hand  notes  on  the  envelope 
of  an  old  letter  loaned  me  for  the  occasion,  and  after 
wards  wrote  them  out.  The  words  of  Mr.  Lincoln, 
exactly  as  spoken,  are  given  above."
274     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
At  Cleveland  the  party  remained  over  for  a  day, 
and  Lincoln  was  greeted  with  the  usual  friendly  enthu 
siasm.  An  immense  crowd  met  him  at  the  depot,  and 
he  was  escorted  to  the  Weddell  House,  where  a  recep 
tion  was  given  him  in  the  evening.  Hon.  A.  G.  Riddle, 
then  a  resident  of  Cleveland,  and  a  newly  elected 
member  of  the  Congress  which  was  to  share  with -Lin 
coln  the  burdens  and  responsibilities  of  the  Civil  War, 
was  present  on  that  occasion,  and  furnishes  the  follow 
ing  interesting  personal  recollections  of  it :  "I  saw 
Abraham  Lincoln  for  the  first  time,  at  the  Weddell 
House  that  evening.  He  stood  on  the  landing-place 
at  the  top  of  a  broad  stairway,  and  the  crowd  ap 
proached  him  from  below.  This  gave  him  an  exag 
gerated  advantage  of  his  six  feet  four  inches  of  length. 
The  shapelessness  of  the  lathy  form,  the  shock  of 
coarse  black  hair  surmounting  the  large  head,  the  re 
treating  forehead  —  these  were  not  apparent  where  we 
stood.  My  heart  sprang  up  to  him  —  the  coming  man. 
Of  the  thousand  times  I  afterward  saw  him,  the  first 
view  remains  the  most  distinct  impression ;  and  never 
again  to  me  was  he  more  imposing.  As  we  approached, 
someone  whispered  of  me  to  him;  he  took  my  hand  in 
both  his  for  an  instant,  and  we  wheeled  into  the  al 
ready  crowded  rooms.  His  manner  was  strongly  West 
ern;  his  speech  and  pronunciation  Southwestern. 
Wholly  without  self-consciousness  with  men,  he  was 
constrained  and  ill  at  ease  when  surrounded,  as  he 
several  times  was,  by  fashionably  dressed  ladies.  One 
incident  of  the  evening  I  particularly  recall.  Ab 
McElrath  was  in  the  crowd  —  a  handsome  giant,  an 
Apollo  in  youth,  of  about  Mr.  Lincoln's  height.  What 
brought  it  about,  I  do  not  know ;  but  I  saw  them  stand 
ing  back  to  back,  in  a  contest  of  altitude  —  Mr.  Lin 
coln  and  Ab  McElrath  —  the  President-elect,  the 
chosen,  the  nation's  leader  in  the  thick-coming  dark-
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     275 
ness,  and  the  tavern-keeper  and  fox-hunter.    The  crowd 
applauded. 
"  Mr.  Lincoln  presented  me  to  the  gentlemen  of 
his  party  —  Mr.  Browning,  Mr.  Judd,  and  Mr.  Lamon, 
I  remember,  as  I  later  became  very  well  acquainted 
with  them ;  also  the  rough-looking  Colonel  Sumner  of 
the  army.  Mr.  Lincoln  invited  me  to  accompany  him 
for  at  least  a  day  on  his  eastward  journey.  I  joined 
him  the  next  morning  at  the  station.  The  vivacity  of 
the  night  before  had  utterly  vanished,  and  the  rudely 
sculptured  cliffy  face  struck  me  as  one  of  the  saddest 
I  had  ever  seen.  The  eyes  especially  had  a  depth  of 
melancholy  which  I  had  never  seen  in  human  eyes 
before.  Some  things  he  wished  to  know  from  me, 
especially  regarding  Mr.  Chase,  whom,  among  others, 
he  had  called  to  Springfield.  He  asked  me  no  direct 
questions,  but  I  very  soon  found  myself  speaking  freely 
to  him,  and  was  able  to  explain  some  not  well-known 
features  of  Ohio  politics  —  and  much  to  his  satisfac 
tion,  as  he  let  me  see.  There  was  then  some  talk  of 
Mr.  Seward,  and  more  of  Senator  Cameron.  All  three 
had  been  his  rivals  at  Chicago,  and  were,  as  I  then 
thought,  in  his  mind  as  possible  Cabinet  ministers; 
although  no  word  was  said  by  him  of  such  an  idea  in 
reference  to  either.  Presently  he  conducted  me  to 
Mrs.  Lincoln,  whom  I  had  not  before  seen.  Present 
ing  me,  he  returned  to  the  gentlemen  of  the  party,  and 
I  saw  little  more  of  him  except  once  when  he  returned 
to  us,  before  I  left  the  train.  Mrs.  Lincoln  impressed 
me  very  favorably,  as  a  woman  of  spirit,  intelligence, 
and  decided  opinions,  which  she  put  very  clearly.  Our 
conversation  was  mainly  of  her  husband.  I  remarked 
that  all  the  likenesses  I  had  ever  seen  of  him  did  him 
injustice.  This  evidently  pleased  her.  I  suggested 
that  a  full  beard  from  the  underlip  down  (his  face 
was  shaven)  would  relieve  and  help  him  very  much.
276     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
This  interested  her,  and  we  discussed  it  and  the  char 
acter  of  his  face  quite  fully.  The  impression  I  then 
formed  of  this  most  unfortunate  lady  was  only  deep 
ened  by  the  pleasant  acquaintance  she  permitted,  down 
to  the  time  of  the  national  calamity,  which  unsettled 
her  mind  as  I  always  thought." 
Of  the  New  York  City  visit,  an  excellent  account  is 
given  by  the  distinguished  preacher  and  writer,  Dr.  S. 
Irenams  Prime.  "  The  country  was  at  that  moment," 
says  Dr.  Prime,  "  in  the  first  throes  of  the  great 
rebellion.  Millions  of  hearts  were  beating  anxiously  in 
view  of  the  advent  to  power  of  this  untried  man.  Had 
he  been  called  of  God  to  the  throne  of  power  at  such 
a  time  as  this,  to  be  the  leader  and  deliverer  of  the 
people?  As  the  carriage  in  which  he  sat  passed  slowly 
by  me  on  the  Fifth  avenue,  he  was  looking  weary, 
sad,  feeble,  and  faint.  My  disappointment  was  ex 
cessive  ;  so  great,  indeed,  as  to  be  almost  overwhelming. 
He  did  not  look  to  me  to  be  the  man  for  the  hour. 
The  next  day  I  was  with  him  and  others  in  the  Gov 
ernor's  room  in  the  City  Hall,  when  the  Mayor  of  the 
city  made  an  official  address.  Mr.  Lincoln's  reply  was 
so  modest,  firm,  patriotic,  and  pertinent,  that  my 
fears  of  the  day  before  began  to  subside,  and  I  saw 
in  this  new  man  a  promise  of  great  things  to  come. 
It  was  not  boldness  or  dash,  or  high-sounding  pledges ; 
nor  did  he  while  in  office,  with  the  mighty  armies  of 
a  roused  nation  at  his  command,  ever  assume  to  be 
more  than  he  promised  in  that  little  upper  chamber 
in  New  York,  on  his  journey  to  the  seat  of  Govern 
ment,  to  take  the  helm  of  the  ship  of  state  then  tossing 
in  the  storm." 
Before  the  end  of  the  journey,  strong  fears  pre 
vailed  in  the  minds  of  Lincoln's  friends  that  an  at 
tempt  would  be  made  to  assassinate  him  before  he 
should  reach  Washington.  Every  precaution  was
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     277 
taken  to  thwart  such  endeavor ;  although  Lincoln  him 
self  was  disturbed  by  no  thought  of  danger.  He  had 
done,  he  contemplated  doing,  no  wrong,  no  injustice 
to  any  citizen  of  the  United  States;  why  then  should 
there  be  a  desire  to  strike  him  down?  Thus  he 
reasoned;  and  he  was  free  from  any  dread  of  personal 
peril.  But  the  officials  of  the  railroads  over  which 
he  was  to  pass,  and  his  friends  in  Washington,  felt 
that  there  was  cause  for  apprehension.  It  was  believed 
by  them  that  a  plot  existed  for  making  away  with  Lin 
coln  while  passing  through  Baltimore,  a  city  in  the 
heart  of  a  slave  State,  and  rife  with  the  spirit  of 
rebellion.  Detectives  had  been  employed  to  discover 
the  facts  in  the  matter,  and  their  reports  served  to 
confirm  the  most  alarming  conjectures.  A  messenger 
was  despatched  from  Washington  to  intercept  the 
Presidential  party  and  warn  Lincoln  of  the  impending 
danger.  Dr.  Holland  states  that  "  the  detective  and 
Mr.  Lincoln  reached  Philadelphia  nearly  at  the  same 
time,  and  there  the  former  submitted  to  a  few  of  the 
President's  friends  the  information  he  had  secured. 
An  interview  between  Mr.  Lincoln  and  the  detective 
was  immediately  arranged,  and  took  place  in  the  apart 
ments  of  the  former  at  the  Continental  Hotel.  Mr. 
Lincoln,  having  heard  the  officer's  statement  in  detail, 
then  informed  him  that  he  had  promised  to  raise  the 
American  flag  on  Independence  Hall  the  following 
morning  —  the  anniversary  of  Washington's  birthday 
—  and  that  he  had  accepted  an  invitation  to  a  recep 
tion  by  the  Pennsylvania  Legislature  in  the  afternoon 
of  the  same  day.  '  Both  of  these  engagements  I  will 
keep,'  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  '  if  it  costs  me  my  life.'  For 
the  rest,  he  authorized  the  detective  to  make  such  ar 
rangements  as  he  thought  proper  for  his  safe  conduct 
to  Washington." 
In  the  meantime,  according  to  Dr.  Holland,  General
278     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
Scott  and  Senator  Seward,  both  of  whom  were  in 
Washington,  learned  from  independent  sources  that 
Lincoln's  life  was  in  danger,  and  concurred  in  sending 
Mr.  Frederick  W.  Seward  to  Philadelphia  to  urge  upon 
him  the  necessity  of  proceeding  immediately  to  Wash 
ington  in  a  quiet  way.  The  messenger  arrived  late  on 
Thursday  night,  after  Lincoln  had  retired,  and  re 
quested  an  audience.  Lincoln's  fears  had  already 
been  aroused,  and  he  was  cautious,  of  course,  in  the 
matter  of  receiving  a  stranger.  But  satisfied  that  the 
messenger  was  indeed  the  son  of  Mr.  Seward,  he  re 
ceived  him.  Nothing  needed  to  be  done  except  to 
inform  him  of  the  plan  entered  into  with  the  detec 
tive,  by  which  the  President  was  to  arrive  in  Wash 
ington  early  on  Saturday  morning,  in  advance  of 
his  family  and  party. 
On  the  morning  of  the  22d,  Lincoln,  as  he  had  prom 
ised,  attended  the  flag-raising  at  Independence  Hall 
in  Philadelphia,  the  historic  building  in  which  had  been 
adopted  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  The  occa 
sion  was  a  memorable  one,  and  Lincoln's  address  elo 
quent  and  impressive.  "  All  the  political  sentiments 
I  entertain,"  said  he,  "  have  been  drawn  from  the 
sentiments  which  were  given  to  the  world  from  this 
hall."  He  spoke  calmly  but  firmly  of  his  resolve  to 
stand  by  the  principles  of  the  immortal  Declaration 
and  of  the  Constitution  of  his  country ;  and,  as  though 
conscious  of  the  dangers  of  his  position,  he  added 
solemnly :  "  I  have  said  nothing  but  what  I  am  willing 
to  live  by,  and,  if  it  be  the  pleasure  of  Almighty  God, 
to  die  by" 
From  Philadelphia  Lincoln  went  immediately  to 
Harrisburg,  and  attended  the  reception  given  him  by 
the  Pennsylvania  Legislature,  in  the  afternoon  of  the 
same  day.  Then,  leaving  his  hotel  in  the  evening,  at 
tended  only  by  Mr.  Lamon  and  the  detective  (Mr.
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     279 
Allan  Pinker  ton),  he  was  driven  to  the  depot,  where 
he  took  the  regular  train  for  Washington.  The  train 
passed  through  Baltimore  in  the  night,  and  early  the 
next  morning  (February  23)  reached  the  capital.  Mr. 
Washburne,  who  had  been  notified  to  be  at  the  depot  on 
the  arrival  of  the  train,  says :  "  I  planted  myself 
behind  one  of  the  great  pillars  in  the  old  Washington 
and  Baltimore  depot,  where  I  could  see  and  not  be 
observed.  Presently,  the  train  came  rumbling  in  on 
time.  When  it  came  to  a  stop  I  watched  with  fear 
and  trembling  to  see  the  passengers  descend.  I  saw 
every  car  emptied,  and  there  was  no  Mr.  Lincoln.  I 
was  well-nigh  in  despair,  and  when  about  to  leave  I 
saw  three  persons  slowly  emerge  from  the  last  sleep 
ing-car.  I  could  not  mistake  the  long,  lank  form  of 
Mr.  Lincoln,  and  my  heart  bounded  with  joy  and  grati 
tude.  He  had  on  a  soft  low-crowned  hat,  a  muffler 
around  his  neck,  and  a  short  overcoat.  Anyone  who 
knew  him  at  that  time  could  not  have  failed  to  recog 
nize  him  at  once;  but  I  must  confess  he  looked  more 
like  a  well-to-do  farmer  from  one  of  the  back  towns 
of  Jo  Daviess  County,  coming  to  Washington  to  see 
the  city,  take  out  his  land  warrant  and  get  the  patent 
for  his  farm,  than  the  President  of  the  United  States. 
The  only  persons  that  accompanied  Mr.  Lincoln  were 
Pinkerton,  the  well-known  detective,  and  Ward  H. 
Lamon.  When  they  were  fairly  on  the  platform,  and  a 
short  distance  from  the  car,  I  stepped  forward  and 
accosted  the  President:  '  How  are  you,  Lincoln?  '  At 
this  unexpected  and  rather  familiar  salutation  the 
gentlemen  were  apparently  somewhat  startled;  but 
Mr.  Lincoln,  who  had  recognized  me,  relieved  them  at 
once  by  remarking  in  his  peculiar  voice :  '  This  is  only 
Washburne ! '  Then  we  all  exchanged  congratulations, 
and  walked  out  to  the  front  of  the  depot,  where  I  had 
a  carriage  in  waiting.  Entering  the  carriage  (all  four
280     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
of  us),  we  drove  rapidly  to  Willard's  Hotel,  entering 
on  Fourteenth  Street,  before  it  was  fairly  daylight." 
General  Stone,  who  was  in  command  at  Washing 
ton  at  that  time,  states  that  both  General  Scott  and 
himself  "  considered  it  almost  a  certainty  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  could  not  pass  through  Baltimore  alive  on  the 
day  fixed,"  and  adds :  "  I  recommended  that  Mr.  Lin 
coln  should  be  officially  warned ;  and  suggested  that 
it  would  be  best  that  he  should  take  the  train  that 
evening  from  Philadelphia,  and  so  reach  Washington 
early  the  next  day.  General  Scott  directed  me  to  see 
Mr.  Seward,  to  whom  he  wrote  a  few  lines,  which  he 
handed  me.  I  did  not  succeed  in  finding  Mr.  Seward 
until  past  noon.  I  handed  him  the  General's  note. 
He  listened  attentively  to  what  I  said,  and  asked  me 
to  write  down  my  information  and  suggestions.  Then, 
taking  the  paper  I  had  written,  he  hastily  left.  The 
note  I  wrote  was  what  Mr.  Frederick  Seward  car 
ried  to  Mr.  Lincoln  in  Philadelphia.  Mr.  Lincoln  has 
stated  that  it  was  this  note  which  induced  him  to  change 
his  journey  as  he  did.  The  stories  of  disguises  are  all 
nonsense.  Mr.  Lincoln  merely  took  the  sleeping-car 
in  the  night  train." 
There  is  little  doubt  that  the  fears  of  Lincoln's 
friends  regarding  his  passage  through  Baltimore  were 
well  grounded;  and  that  but  for  the  timely  warnings 
and  precautions  the  assassination  of  April,  1865, 
might  have  taken  place  in  February  of  1861.
CHAPTER    XV. 
Lincoln  at  the  Helm  —  First  Days  in  Washington  —  Meeting  Public 
Men  and  Discussing  Public  Affairs  —  The  Inauguration  —  The 
Inaugural  Address  —  A  New  Era  Begun  —  Lincoln  in  the  White 
House  — The  First  Cabinet  —  The  President  and  the  Office- 
seekers  —  Southern  Prejudice  against  Lincoln  —  Ominous  Portents, 
but  Lincoln  not  Dismayed —  The  President's  Reception  Room  — 
Varied  Impressions  of  the  New  President  —  Guarding  the  White 
House. 
F  I  "VHE  week  following  Lincoln's  arrival  in  Washing- 
J^  ton,  and  preceding  his  inauguration,  was  for  him 
one  of  incessant  activity.  From  almost  the  first  mo 
ment  he  was  engrossed  either  in  preparations  for  his  in 
auguration  and  the  official  responsibilities  which  would 
immediately  follow  that  event,  or  in  receiving  the  dis 
tinguished  callers  who  hastened  to  meet  him  and  in 
discussing  with  them  the  grave  aspects  of  political 
affairs.  Without  rest  or  opportunity  to  survey  the 
field  that  lay  before  him,  or  any  preparations  save 
such  as  the  resources  of  his  own  strong  character 
might  afford  him,  he  was  plunged  instantly  into  the 
great  political  maelstrom  in  which  he  was  to  remain  for 
four  long  years,  and  whose  wild  vortex  might  well 
have  bewildered  an  eye  less  sure,  a  will  less  resolute, 
and  a  brain  less  cool  than  his.  As  Emerson  put  it, 
"  The  new  pilot  was  hurried  to  the  helm  in  a  tornado." 
"  Mr.  Lincoln's  headquarters,"  says  Congressman 
Riddle  of  Ohio,  "were  at  Willard's  Hotel;  and  the 
few  days  before  the  inauguration  were  given  up  to  a 
continuous  reception  in  the  broad  corridor  of  the 
second  floor,  near  the  stairway.  I  remember  a  notable 
morning  when  the  majestic  General  Scott,  in  full  dress,
282     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
sword,  plumes,  and  bullion,  came  to  pay  his  respects  to 
the  incoming  President.  The  scene  was  impressive. 
By  the  unknown  law  that  ruled  his  spirits,  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  at  his  best,  complete  master  of  himself  and  of  all 
who  came  within  the  magic  of  his  presence.  Never 
was  he  happier,  speaking  most  of  the  time,  flashing 
with  anecdote  and  story.  That  time  now  seems  as 
remote  as  things  of  a  hundred  years  ago.  The  war 
antiquated  all  that  went  before  it.  The  Washington, 
the  men,  the  spirit  of  that  now  ancient  time,  have 
faded  past  all  power  to  recall  and  reproduce  them. 
The  real  Washington  was  as  essentially  Southern  as 
Richmond  or  Baltimore.  '  Lincoln  and  his  vandals,' 
fresh  from  the  North  and  West,  were  thronging  the 
wide,  squat,  unattractive  city,  from  which  the  bolder 
and  braver  rebel  element  had  not  yet  departed." 
Dr.  George  B.  Loring,  of  Massachusetts,  who  was 
one  of  the  first  to  meet  Lincoln  after  his  arrival  in 
Washington,  says :  "  I  saw  him  on  his  arrival,  and 
when  he  made  his  first  appearance  in  a  public  place. 
I  was  standing  in  the  upper  hall  of  Willard's  Hotel, 
conversing  with  a  friend  and  listening  to  the  confused 
talk  of  the  crowded  drawing-room  adjoining.  As  we 
stood  there,  a  tall  and  awkward  form  appeared  above 
the  stairs,  especially  conspicuous,  as  it  came  into  view, 
for  a  new  and  stylish  hat.  It  was  evidently  President 
Lincoln,  whom  neither  of  us  had  seen  before.  As  soon 
as  his  presence  was  known,  the  hall  was  thronged  from 
the  drawing-rooms.  He  seemed  somewhat  startled  by 
the  crowd,  did  not  remove  his  hat,  wended  his  way 
somewhat  rapidly  and  with  mere  passing  recognition, 
and  took  shelter  in  his  room.  When  the  crowd  had 
dispersed,  my  friend  and  myself  —  although  we  had 
opposed  his  election  —  called  upon  him  to  pay  our 
respects.  He  received  us  with  great  cordiality,  spoke 
freely  of  the  difficulties  by  which  he  was  surrounded,
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     283 
and  referred  with  evident  satisfaction  to  the  support 
he  had  received  in  Massachusetts.  '  I  like  your  man 
Banks,'  said  he,  '  and  have  tried  to  find  a  place  for  him 
in  my  Cabinet ;  but  I  am  afraid  I  shall  not  quite  fetch 
it.'  He  bore  the  marks  of  anxiety  in  his  countenance, 
which,  in  its  expression  of  patience,  determination, 
resolve,  and  deep  innate  modesty,  was  extremely 
touching." 
Before  leaving  Springfield  Lincoln  had  prepared 
his  inaugural  message  with  great  care,  and  placed  it 
in  a  "  gripsack  "  for  transportation  to  Washington. 
An  odd  incident,  by  which  the  message  came  near  being 
lost  on  the  journey,  was  afterwards  related  by  Lin 
coln  to  a  friend.  When  the  party  reached  Harrisburg 
Lincoln  asked  his  son  Robert  where  the  message  was, 
and  was  taken  aback  by  his  son's  confession  that  in  the 
excitement  caused  by  the  enthusiastic  reception  he  be 
lieved  he  had  let  a  waiter  have  the  gripsack.  Lincoln, 
in  narrating  the  incident,  said :  "  My  heart  went  up 
into  my  mouth,  and  I  started  downstairs,  where  I 
was  told  that  if  a  waiter  had  taken  the  gripsack  I 
should  probably  find  it  in  the  baggage-room) !  Going 
there,  I  saw  a  large  pile  of  gripsacks  and  other  bag 
gage,  and  thought  that  I  discovered  mine.  My  key 
fitted  it,  but  on  opening  there  was  nothing  inside  but 
a  few  paper  collars  and  a  flask  of  whisky.  A  few 
moments  afterward  I  came  across  my  own  gripsack, 
w^ith  the  document  in  it  all  right." 
The  fourth  of  March  soon  came,  and  with  it  the 
impressive  ceremonies  of  .Lincoln's  inauguration  as 
President.  A  good  description  of  the  scene  is  given 
by  Dr.  J.  G.  Holland.  "  The  morning  broke  beauti 
fully  clear,  and  it  found  General  Scott  and  the  Wash 
ington  police  in  readiness.  In  the  hearts  of  the  surg 
ing  crowds  there  was  anxiety ;  but  outside  all  looked 
as  usual  on  such  occasions,  with  the  exception  of  an
284     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
extraordinary  display  of  soldiers.  The  public  build 
ings,  the  schools,  and  most  of  the  places  of  business, 
were  closed  during  the  day,  and  the  stars  and  stripes 
were  floating  from  every  flag-staff.  There  was  a 
great  desire  to  hear  Lincoln's  inaugural;  and  at  an 
early  hour  Pennsylvania  Avenue  was  full  of  people 
wending  their  way  to  the  east  front  of  the  Capitol 
where  it  was  to  be  delivered.  As  the  Presidential  party 
reached  the  platform  erected  for  the  ceremonies,  Sena 
tor  Baker  of  Oregon,  one  of  Lincoln's  old  friends  and 
political  rivals  in  Illinois,  introduced  him  to  the  as 
sembly.  There  was  not  a  very  hearty  welcome  given 
to  the  President  as  he  stepped  forward  to  read  his 
inaugural.  The  reading  was  listened  to  with  profound 
attention,  those  passages  which  contained  any  allusion 
to  the  Union  being  vociferously  cheered.  None  listened 
more  carefully  than  Mr.  Buchanan  and  Judge  Taney, 
the  latter  of  whom,  with  noticeable  agitation,  admin 
istered  the  oath  of  office  to  Mr.  Lincoln  when  his 
address  was  ended." 
Another  eye-witness  has  described  the  dramatic 
scene,  and  the  principal  actors  in  it,  in  the  following 
graphic  paragraphs :  "  Near  noon  I  found  myself  a 
member  of  the  motley  crowd  gathered  around  the  side 
entrance  to  Willard's  Hotel.  Soon  an  open  barouche 
drove  up,  and  the  only  occupant  stepped  out.  A  large, 
heavy,  awkward-moving  man,  far  advanced  in  years, 
short  and  thin  gray  hair,  full  face  plentifully  seamed 
and  wrinkled,  head  curiously  inclined  to  the  left  shoul 
der,  a  low-crowned,  broad-brimmed  silk  hat,  an  im 
mense  white  cravat  like  a  poultice  thrusting  the  old- 
fashioned  standing  collar  up  to  the  ears,  dressed  in 
black  throughout,  with  swallow-tail  coat  not  of  the 
newest  style.  It  was  President  Buchanan,  calling  to 
take  his  successor  to  the  Capitol.  In  a  few  minutes 
he  reappeared,  with  Mr.  Lincoln  on  his  arm;  the
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     285 
two  took  seats  side  by  side,  and  the  carriage  rolled 
away,  followed  by  a  rather  disorderly  and  certainly  not 
very  imposing  procession.  I  had  ample  time  to  walk 
to  the  Capitol,  and  no  difficulty  in  securing  a  place 
where  everything  could  be  seen  and  heard  to  the  best 
advantage.  The  attendance  at  the  inauguration  was, 
they  told  me,  unusually  small ;  many  being  kept  away 
by  anticipated  disturbance,  as  it  had  been  ru 
mored  —  not  without  good  grounds  —  that  General 
Scott  himself  was  fearful  of  an  outbreak,  and  had 
made  all  possible  military  preparations  to  meet  the 
emergency.  A  square  platform  had  been  built  out 
from  the  steps  to  the  eastern  portico,  with  benches  for 
distinguished  spectators  on  three  sides.  Senator  Doug 
las,  the  only  one  I  recognized,  sat  at  the  extreme  end 
of  the  seat  on  the  right  of  the  narrow  passage  lead 
ing  from  the  steps.  There  was  no  delay,  and  the  gaunt 
form  of  the  President-elect  was  soon  visible,  slowly 
making  his  way  to  the  front.  To  me,  at  least,  he  was 
completely  metamorphosed  —  partly  by  his  own  fault, 
and  partly  through  the  efforts  of  injudicious  friends 
and  ambitious  tailors.  He  was  raising  (to  gratify  a 
very  young  lady,  it  is  said)  a  crop  of  whiskers,  of  the 
blacking-brush  variety,  coarse,  stiff,  and  ungraceful ; 
and  in  so  dcting  spoiled,  or  at  least  seriously  impaired, 
a  face  which,]  though  never  handsome,  had  in  its  origi 
nal  state  a  peculiar  power  and  pathos.  On  the  present 
occasion  the  whiskers  were  reinforced  by  brand-new 
clothes  from  top  to  toe ;  black  dress  coat  instead  of 
the  usual  frock ;  black  cloth  or  satin  vest,  black  panta 
loons,  and  a  glossy  hat  evidently  just  out  of  the  box. 
To  cap  the  climax  of  novelty,  he  carried  a  huge  ebony 
cane,  with  a  gold  head  the  size  of  an  egg.  In  these,  to 
•him,  strange  habiliments,  he  looked  so  miserably  uncom 
fortable  that  I  could  not  help  pitying  him.  Reaching 
the  platform,  his  discomfort  was  visibly  increased  by
286     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
not  knowing  what  to  do  with  hat  and  cane;  and  so 
he  stood  there,  the  target  for  ten  thousand  eyes,  hold 
ing  his  cane  in  one  hand  and  his  hat  in  the  other,  the 
picture  of  helpless  embarrassment.  After  some  hesi 
tation,  he  pushed  the  cane  into  a  corner  of  the  railing, 
but  could  not  find  a  place  for  the  hat,  except  on  the 
floor,  where  I  could  see  he  did  not  like  to  risk  it. 
Douglas,  who  fully  took  in  the  situation,  came  to  the 
rescue  of  his  old  friend  and  rival,  and  held  the  precious 
hat  until  the  owner  needed  it  again;  a  service  which, 
if  predicted  two  years  before,  would  probably  have 
astonished  him.  The  oath  of  office  was  administered 
by  Chief  Justice  Taney,  whose  black  robes,  attenuated 
figure,  and  cadaverous  countenance  reminded  me  of  a 
galvanized  corpse.  Then  the  President  came  forward 
and  read  his  inaugural  address  in  a  clear  and  distinct 
voice.  It  was  attentively  listened  to  by  all ;  but  the 
closest  listener  was  Douglas,  who  leaned  forward  as  if 
to  catch  every  word,  nodding  his  head  emphatically  at 
those  passages  which  most  pleased  him.  I  must  not 
forget  to  mention  the  presence  of  a  Mephistopheles  in 
the  person  of  Senator  Wigfall  of  Texas,  who  stood  with 
folded  arms  leaning  against  the  doorway  of  the  Capitol, 
looking  down  upon  the  crowd  and  the  ceremony  with  a 
contemptuous  air  which  sufficiently  indicated  his  opin 
ion  of  the  whole  performance.  To  him,  the  Southern 
Confederacy  was  already  an  accomplished  fact." 
"  Under  the  shadow  of  the  great  Eastern  portico  of 
the  Capitol,"  says  General  John  A.  Logan,  "  with  the 
retiring  President  and  Cabinet,  the  Supreme  Court  Jus 
tices,  the  Foreign  Diplomatic  Corps,  and  hundreds  of 
Senators,  Representatives,  and  other  distinguished  per 
sons  filling  the  great  platform  on  either  side  and  be 
hind  them,  Abraham  Lincoln  stood  bareheaded  before 
full  thirty  thousand  people,  upon  whose  uplifted  faces 
the  unveiled  glory  of  the  mild  Spring  sun  now  shone  —
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     287 
stood  reverently  before  that  far  greater  and  mightier 
Presence  termed  by  himself,  '  My  rightful  masters,  the 
American  people  '  —  and  pleaded  in  a  manly,  earnest, 
and  affectionate  strain  with  '  such  as  were  dissatisfied  ' 
to  listen  to  the  '  better  angels  '  of  their  nature.  '  Tem 
perate,  reasonable,  kindly  persuasive '  —  it  seems 
strange  that  Lincoln's  inaugural  address  did  not  dis 
arm  at  least  the  personal  resentment  of  the  South 
toward  him,  and  sufficiently  strengthen  Union-loving 
people  there  against  the  red-hot  Secessionists,  to  put 
the  '  brakes  '  down  on  rebellion." 
The  address  was  devoted  almost  exclusively  to  the 
great  absorbing  topic  of  the  hour  —  the  attempt  of  the 
Southern  States  to  withdraw  from  the  Union  and  erect 
an  independent  republic.  The  calm,  firm,  moderate, 
judicious  spirit  which  pervaded  Lincoln's  address  is 
apparent  in  the  following  quotations,  which  contain 
its  most  significant  and  memorable  passages: 
Fellow-Citizens  of  the  United  States:  —  In  compli 
ance  with  a  custom  as  old  as  the  Government  itself,  I 
appear  before  you  to  address  you  briefly,  and  to  take 
in  your  presence  the  oath  prescribed  by  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States  to  be  taken  by  the  President 
"  before  he  enters  on  the  execution  of  his  office."  .  .  . 
Apprehension  seems  to  exist  among  the  people  of  the 
Southern  States,  that  by  the  accession  of  a  Republican 
Administration  their  property  and  their  peace  and  per 
sonal  security  are  to  be  endangered.  There  has  never 
been  any  reasonable  cause  for  such  apprehension.  In 
deed,  the  most  ample  evidence  to  the  contrary  has  all 
the  while  existed  and  been  open  to  their  inspection.  It 
is  found  in  nearly  all  the  published  speeches  of  him  who 
now  addresses  you.  I  do  but  quote  from  one  of  those 
speeches  when  I  declare  that  "  I  have  no  purpose, 
directly  or  indirectly,  to  interfere  with  the  institution 
of  slavery  in  the  States  where  it  exists.  I  believe  I
288     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
have  no  lawful  right  to  do  so,  and  I  have  no  inclination 
to  do  so."  Those  who  nominated  and  elected  me  did 
so  with  full  knowledge  that  I  had  made  this  and  many 
similar  declarations,  and  have  never  recanted  them. 
...  I  now  reiterate  these  sentiments;  and,  in  doing 
so,  I  only  press  upon  the  public  attention  the  most 
conclusive  evidence  of  which  the  case  is  susceptible, 
that  the  property,  peace,  and  security  of  no  section  are 
to  be  in  anywise  endangered  by  the  now  incoming  Ad 
ministration.  I  add,  too,  that  all  the  protection  which, 
consistently  with  the  Constitution  and  the  laws,  can  be 
given,  will  be  cheerfully  given  to  all  the  States,  when 
lawfully  demanded,  for  whatever  cause  —  as  cheer 
fully  to  one  section  as  to  another.  ...  I  hold  that,  in 
contemplation  of  universal  law,  and  of  the  Constitution, 
the  Union  of  these  States  is  perpetual.  Perpetuity  is 
implied,  if  not  expressed,  in  the  fundamental  law  of  all 
National  Governments.  It  is  safe  to  assert  that  no 
Government  proper  ever  had  a  provision  in  its  organic 
law  for  its  own  termination.  Continue  to  execute  all 
the  express  provisions  of  our  National  Constitution, 
and  the  Union  will  endure  forever.  ...  I  therefore 
consider  that,  in  view  of  the  Constitution  and  the  laws, 
the  Union  is  unbroken,  and  to  the  extent  of  my  ability 
I  shall  take  care,  as  the  Constitution  itself  expressly 
enjoins  upon  me,  that  the  laws  of  the  Union  be  faith 
fully  executed  in  all  the  States.  Doing  this  I  deem 
to  be  only  a  simple  duty  on  my  part;  and  I  shall  per 
form  it,  so  far  as  practicable,  unless  my  rightful  mas 
ters,  the  American  people,  shall  withhold  the  requisite 
means,  or,  in  some  authoritative  manner,  direct  the 
contrary.  I  trust  this  will  not  be  regarded  as  a  men 
ace,  but  only  as  the  declared  purpose  of  the  Union  that 
it  will  constitutionally  defend  and  maintain  itself.  In 
doing  this,  there  need  be  no  bloodshed  or  violence;  and 
there  shall  be  none,  unless  it  be  forced  upon  the  national 
authority.  The  power  confided  to  me  will  be  used  to 
hold,  occupy,  and  possess  the  property  and  places  be 
longing  to  the  Government,  and  to  collect  the  duties
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     289 
and  imposts;  but  beyond  what  may  be  but  necessary 
for  these  objects,  there  will  be  no  invasion,  no  using 
of  force  against  or  among  the  people  anywhere.  .  .  . 
Physically  speaking,  we  cannot  separate.  We  cannot 
remove  our  respective  sections  from  each  other,  nor 
build  an  impassable  wall  between  them.  A  husband 
and  wife  may  be  divorced,  and  go  out  of  the  presence 
and  beyond  the  reach  of  each  other;  but  the  different 
parts  of  our  country  cannot  do  this.  They  cannot  but 
remain  face  to  face;  and  intercourse,  either  amicable 
or  hostile,  must  continue  between  them.  It  is  impossi 
ble,  then,  to  make  that  intercourse  more  advantageous 
or  more  satisfactory  after  separation  than  before. 
Can  aliens  make  treaties  easier  than  friends  can  make 
law?  Can  treaties  be  more  faithfully  enforced  between 
aliens  than  laws  can  among  friends?  Suppose  you  go 
to  war,  you  cannot  fight  always ;  and  when,  after  much 
loss  on  both  sides  and  no  gain  on  either,  you  cease 
fighting,  the  identical  old  questions,  as  to  terms  of 
intercourse,  are  again  upon  you.  .  .  .  This  country, 
with  its  institutions,  belongs  to  the  people  who  inhabit 
it.  Whenever  they  shall  grow  weary  of  the  existing 
Government,  they  can  exercise  their  constitutional  right 
of  amending  it,  or  their  revolutionary  right  to  dis 
member  or  overthrow  it.  I  cannot  be  ignorant  of  the 
fact  that  many  worthy  and  patriotic  citizens  are  de 
sirous  of  having  the  National  Constitution  amended. 
While  I  make  no  recommendation  of  amendments,  I 
fully  recognize  the  rightful  authority  of  the  people  over 
the  whole  subject,  to  be  exercised  in  either  of  the  modes 
prescribed  in  the  instrument  itself ;  and  I  should,  under 
existing  circumstances,  favor  rather  than  oppose  a  fair 
opportunity  being  afforded  the  people  to  act  upon  it. 
.  .  .  The  Chief  Magistrate  derives  all  his  authority 
from  the  people,  and  they  have  conferred  none  upon 
him  to  fix  terms  for  the  separation  of  the  States.  The 
people  themselves  can  do  this  also,  if  they  choose ;  but 
the  Executive,  as  such,  has  nothing  to  do  with  it.  His 
duty  is  to  administer  the  present  Government  as  it
290     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
came  to  his  hands,  and  to  transmit  it,  unimpaired  by 
him,  to  his  successor.  .  .  .  By  the  frame  of  the  Gov 
ernment  under  which  we  live,  the  same  people  have 
wisely  given  their  public  servants  but  little  power  for 
mischief;  and  have,  with  equal  wisdom,  provided  for 
the  return  of  that  little  to  their  own  hands  at  very 
short  intervals.  While  the  people  retain  their  virtue 
and  vigilance,  no  administration,  by  any  extreme  of 
wickedness  or  folly,  can  very  seriously  injure  the  Gov 
ernment  in  the  short  space  of  four  years. 
My  countrymen,  one  and  all,  think  calmly  and  well 
upon  this  whole  subject.  Nothing  valuable  can  be  lost 
by  taking  time.  If  there  be  an  object  to  hurry  any  of 
you  in  hot  haste  to  a  step  which  you  would  never  take 
deliberately,  that  object  will  be  frustrated  by  taking 
time;  but  no  good  can  be  frustrated  by  it.  Such  of 
you  as  are  now  dissatisfied  still  have  the  old  Consti 
tution  unimpaired,  and,  on  the  sensitive  point,  the  laws 
of  your  owrn  framing  under  it ;  while  the  new  adminis 
tration  will  have  no  immediate  power,  if  it  would,  to 
change  either.  If  it  were  admitted  that  you  who  are 
dissatisfied  hold  the  right  side  in  the  dispute,  there  still 
is  no  single  good  reason  for  precipitate  action.  Intelli 
gence,  patriotism,  Christianity,  and  a  firm  reliance  on 
Him  who  has  never  yet  forsaken  this  favored  land,  are 
still  competent  to  adjust,  in  the  best  way,  all  our 
present  difficulty. 
In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow-countrymen, 
and  not  in  mine,  is  the  momentous  issue  of  civil  war. 
The  Government  will  not  assail  you.  You  can  have 
no  conflict  without  being  yourselves  the  aggressors. 
You  have  no  oath  registered  in  heaven  to  destroy  the 
Government ;  while  I  shall  have  the  most  solemn  one  to 
"  preserve,  protect,  and  defend  "  it. 
I  am  loth  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies,  but  friends. 
We  must  not  be  enemies.  Though  passion  may  have 
strained,  it  must  not  break,  our  bonds  of  affection. 
The  mystic  chords  of  memory,  stretching  from  every 
battlefield  and  patriot  grave  to  every  living  heart  and
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     291 
hearthstone  all  over  this  broad  land,  will  yet  swell  the 
chorus  of  the  Union,  when  again  touched,  as  surely  they 
will  be,  by  the  better  angels  of  our  nature. 
At  the  close  of  the  address,  which  was  delivered  with 
the  utmost  earnestness  and  solemnity,  Lincoln,  "  with 
reverent  look  and  impressive  emphasis,  repeated  the 
oath  to  preserve,  protect,  and  defend  the  Constitution 
of  his  country.  Douglas,  who  knew  the  conspirators 
and  their  plots,  with  patriotic  magnanimity  then 
grasped  the  hand  of  the  President,  gracefully  extended 
his  congratulations,  and  the  -assurance  that  in  the  dark 
future  he  would  stand  by  him,  and  give  to  him  his 
utmost  aid  in  upholding  the  Constitution  and  enforcing 
the  laws  of  his  country." 
"  At  the  inauguration,"  says  Congressman  Riddle, 
"  I  stood  within  a  yard  of  Mr.  Lincoln  when  he  pro 
nounced  his  famous  address.  How  full  of  life  and 
power  it  then  was,  with  the  unction  of  his  utterance ! 
Surely,  we  thought,  the  South,  which  rejected  the  con 
cessions  of  Congress,  would  accept  him.  How  dry  and 
quaint,  yet  ingenious,  much  of  that  inaugural  appears 
to  me  now,  when  the  life  and  soul  seem  to  have  gone 
out  of  it !  A  sad  thing  —  a  spectre  of  the  day  - 
will  forever  haunt  my  memory:  Poor  old  President 
Buchanan,  short,  stout,  pale,  white-haired,  yet  bear 
ing  himself  resolutely  throughout,  linked  by  the  arm 
to  the  new  President,  into  whom  from  himself  was 
passing  the  qualifying  unction  of  the  Constitution, 
jostled  hither  and  thither,  as  already  out  of  men's 
sight,  yet  bravely  maintaining  the  shadow  of  dignity 
and  place.  How  glad  he  must  have  been  to  take  leave 
of  his  successor  at  the  White  House  when  all  was 
ended!" 
The  formalities  of  the  inauguration  concluded,  Lin 
coln  passed  back  through  the  Senate  Chamber,  and,
292     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
again  escorted  by  Mr.  Buchanan,  was  conducted  to 
the  White  House,  where  the  cares  and  anxieties  of  his 
position  immediately  descended  upon  him.  "  Strange 
indeed,"  says  General  Logan,  "  must  have  been  the 
thoughts  that  crowded  through  the  brain  and  oppressed 
the  heart  of  Abraham  Lincoln  that  night  —  his  first 
at  the  White  House.  The  City  of  Washington  swarmed 
with  rebels  and  rebel  sympathizers,  and  all  the  depart 
ments  of  Government  were  honeycombed  with  treason 
and  shadowed  with  treachery  and  espionage.  Every 
step  proposed  or  contemplated  by  the  Government 
would  be  known  to  the  so-called  Government  of  the 
Confederate  States  almost  as  soon  as  thought  of.  All 
means  to  thwart  and  delay  the  carrying  out  of  the 
Government's  purposes  that  the  excuses  of  routine  and 
red  tape  admitted  of  would  be  used  by  the  traitors 
within  the  camp  to  aid  the  traitors  without.  No  one 
knew  all  this  better  than  Mr.  Lincoln.  With  no  army, 
no  navy,  not  even  a  revenue  cutter  left  —  with  forts 
and  arsenals,  ammunition  and  arms,  in  possession  of 
the  South,  with  no  money  in  the  National  Treasury, 
and  the  National  credit  blasted  —  the  position  must, 
even  to  his  hopeful  nature,  have  seemed  desperate. 
Yet  even  in  this  awful  hour,  he  was  sustained  by  con 
fidence  in  the  good  effects  of  his  conciliatory  message 
to  the  South,  and  by  his  trust  in  the  patriotism  of  the 
people  and  the  Providence  of  God.'* 
Mr.  Welles,  the  incoming  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  in 
writing  of  the  period  immediately  following  the  in 
auguration,  says :  "  A  strange  state  of  things  existed 
at  that  time  in  Washington.  The.  atmosphere  was  thick 
with  treason.  Party  spirit  and  old  party  differences 
prevailed  amidst  the  accumulating  dangers.  Secession 
was  considered  by  most  persons  as  a  political  party 
question,  not  as  rebellion.  Democrats  to  a  large  ex 
tent  sympathized  with  the  Rebels  more  than  with  the
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     293 
Administration.  The  Republicans,  on  the  other  hand, 
were  scarcely  less  partisan  and  unreasonable  .  .  . 
clamorous  for  the  removal  of  all  Democrats,  indis 
criminately,  from  office." 
The  President's  first  official  act  was  the  announce 
ment  of  his  Cabinet,  which  was  composed  of  the  follow 
ing  persons:  William  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State; 
Simon  Cameron,  Secretary  of  War;  Salmon  P.  Chase, 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury ;  Gideon  Welles,  Secretary 
of  the  Navy;  Caleb  B.  Smith,  Secretary  of  the  In 
terior;  Montgomery  Blair,  Postmaster  General;  and 
Edward  Bates,  Attorney  General.  Lincoln  had  selected 
these  counselors  with  grave  deliberation.  In  reply  to 
the  remonstrances  urged,  on  political  grounds,  against 
the  appointment  of  one  or  two  of  them,  he  had  said: 
"  The  times  are  too  grave  and  perilous  for  ambitious 
schemes  and  personal  rivalries.  I  need  the  aid  of  all 
of  these  men.  They  enjoy  the  confidence  of  their  sev 
eral  States  and  sections,  and  they  will  strengthen  the 
administration."  On  another  occasion  he  remarked: 
"  It  will  require  the  utmost  skill,  influence,  and  sa 
gacity  of  all  of  us,  to  save  the  country;  let  us  forget 
ourselves,  and  join  hands  like  brothers  to  save  the 
Republic.  If  we  succeed,  there  will  be  glory  enough 
for  all." 
Speculations  have  been  almost  endless  as  to  how  the 
Cabinet  came  to  be  made  up  as  it  was.  But  the  truth 
is,  according  to  Secretary  Welles,  that  it  was  practi 
cally  made  up  in  Springfield  almost  as  soon  as  Lincoln 
found  himself  elected.  In  Lincoln's  own  words,  as 
given  by  Mr.  Welles :  "  On  the  day  of  the  Presidential 
election  the  operator  of  the  telegraph  in  Springfield 
placed  his  instrument  at  my  disposal.  I  was  there 
without  leaving,  after  the  returns  began  to  come  in, 
until  we  had  enough  to  satisfy  us  how  the  election  had 
gone.  This  was  about  two  in  the  morning  of  Wednes-
294     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
day.  I  went  home,  but  not  to  get  much  sleep;  for  I 
then  felt,  as  I  never  had  before,  the  responsibility  that 
was  upon  me.  I  began  at  once  to  feel  that  I  needed 
support,  —  others  to  share  with  me  the  burden.  This 
was  on  Wednesday  morning,  and  before  the  sun  went 
down  I  had  made  up  my  Cabinet.  It  was  almost  the 
same  that  I  finally  appointed." 
The  only  two  members  of  the  Cabinet  who  served 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  Lincoln's  adminis 
tration  were  Welles  and  Seward.  Stanton  was  not 
appointed  until  January  13,  1862,  succeeding  Simon 
Cameron.  Chase  left  the  Treasury  Department  to  be 
come  Chief  Justice,  and  was  succeeded  in  the  Treasury 
Department  by  ex-Governor  Fessenden  of  Vermont, 
who  in  his  turn  was  succeeded  by  Hugh  McCulloch. 
The  Attorney  General's  chair  was  filled  successively  by 
Bates  and  Speed.  Caleb  B.  Smith  was  the  first  Secre 
tary  of  the  Interior,  succeeded  (January  1,  1863)  by 
John  P.  Usher.  The  first  Postmaster  General  was 
Montgomery  Blair,  who  was  followed  (September  4, 
1864)  by  ex-Governor  Dennison  of  Ohio.  The  appoint 
ment  that  gave  the  greatest  surprise  of  any  in  the 
Cabinet  was  that  of  Stanton  as  Secretary  of  War. 
Stanton  had  been  in  Buchanan's  cabinet  as  Attorney 
General.  He  had  been  outspoken,  almost  brutal,  in 
his  scornful  hostility  to  Lincoln,  and  the  appointment 
by  him  was  as  great  a  surprise  to  Stanton  as  his 
acceptance  of  it  wras  to  everyone.  When  asked,  some 
what  incredulously,  what  he  would  do  as  War  Secre 
tary  Stanton  replied,  "  /  will  make  Abe  Lincoln  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States."  Of  the  character  of  this 
remarkable  man,  Mr.  Alonzo  Rothschild,  in  his  inter 
esting  study  of  the  relations  between  Lincoln  and 
Stanton  ("Lincoln,  Master  of  Men,"  p.  229),  says: 
"  Intense  earnestness  marked  Stanton's  every  act.  So 
sharply  were  all  his  faculties  focused  upon  the  purpose
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     295 
of  the  hour  that  he  is  to  be  classed  among  the  one-idea 
men  of  history.  Whatever  came  between  him  and  his 
goal  encountered  an  iron  will.  .  .  .  Quick  to  penetrate 
through  the  husks  of  fraud  into  the  very  nubbin  of 
things,  he  was  even  more  swiftly  moved  by  relentless 
wrath  to  insist  upon  exposure  and  punishment.  The 
brief  career  [as  Attorney  General]  in  Buchanan's 
cabinet  had  been  long  enough  to  demonstrate  his  almost 
savage  hostility  toward  official  dishonesty,  as  well  as 
his  moral  courage  to  grapple  with  treason  in  high 
places.  Above  all,  he  evinced  a  loyalty  to  the  Union 
that  rose  above  the  party  creed  of  a  lifetime  —  that 
might  demand  of  him  any  sacrifice  however  great." 
The  first  weeks  of  President  Lincoln's  residence  in  the 
Executive  Mansion  were  occupied  with  the  arduous  work 
of  selecting  loyal  and  capable  men  for  responsible  posi 
tions  in  the  Government  service.  The  departments  at 
Washington  were  filled  with  disloyal  men,  who  used 
the  means  and  influence  pertaining  to  their  places  to 
aid  the  rebellious  States.  It  was  of  vital  importance 
that  these  faithless  officials  should  be  removed  at  the 
earliest  moment,  and  their  positions  filled  with  men 
of  tried  integrity.  Lincoln  desired  to  appoint  for  this 
purpose  stanch,  competent,  and  trustworthy  citizens, 
regardless  of  party  distinctions.  But  the  labor  in 
volved  in  this  duty  was  enormous  and  exhausting. 
There  was  a  multitude  of  vacant  places,  there  were 
difficult  questions  to  be  considered  in  a  majority  of 
cases,  and  there  was  a  host  of  applicants  and  their 
friends  to  be  satisfied.  Mr.  Charles  A.  Dana  relates 
a  circumstance  which  hints  at  the  troubles  encountered 
by  Lincoln  in  this  province  of  his  Presidential  duties. 
"  The  first  time  I  saw  Mr.  Lincoln,"  says  Mr.  Dana, 
"  was  shortly  after  his  inauguration.  He  had  ap 
pointed  Mr.  Seward  to  be  his  Secretary  of  State; 
and  some  of  the  Republican  leaders  of  New  York,  who
296     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
had  been  instrumental  in  preventing  Mr.  Seward's 
nomination  to  the  Presidency  and  in  securing  that  of 
Mr.  Lincoln,  had  begun  to  fear  that  they  would  be 
left  out  in  the  cold  in  the  distribution  of  the  offices. 
Accordingly  several  of  them  determined  to  go  to  Wash 
ington,  and  I  was  asked  to  go  with  them.  We  all 
went  up  to  the  White  House  together,  except  Mr. 
Stanton,  who  stayed  away  because  he  was  himself  an 
applicant  for  office.  Mr.  Lincoln  received  us  in  the 
large  room  upstairs  in  the  east  wing  of  the  White 
House,  where  the  President  had  his  working  office,  and 
stood  up  while  General  Wadsworth,  who  was  our  prin 
cipal  spokesman,  stated  what  was  desired.  After  the 
interview  was  begun,  a  big  Indianian,  who  was  a  mes 
senger  in  attendance  in  the  White  House,  came  into 
the  room  and  said  to  the  President,  '  She  wants  you.' 
6  Yes,  yes,'  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  without  stirring.  Soon 
afterward  the  messenger  returned  again,  exclaiming, 
6 1  say  she  wants  you.'  The  President  was  evidently 
annoyed,  but  instead  of  going  out  after  the  messenger 
he  remarked  to  us :  '  One  side  shall  not  gobble  up 
everything.  Make  out  a  list  of  the  places  and  men 
you  want,  and  I  will  endeavor  to  apply  the  rule  of 
give  and  take.'  General  Wadsworth  answered:  *  Our 
party  will  not  be  able  to  remain  in  Washington,  but 
we  will  leave  such  a  list  with  Mr.  Carroll,  and  what 
ever  he  agrees  to  will  be  agreeable  to  us.'  Mr.  Lincoln 
continued,  '  Let  Mr.  Carroll  come  in  to-morrow,  and 
we  will  see  what  can  be  done.'  ' 
Lincoln  was  regarded  with  violent  animosity  by  all 
who  were  in  sympathy  with  the  peculiar  prejudices  of 
the  slave  States.  The  inhabitants  of  the  District  of 
Columbia  looked  upon  him  with  especial  dislike.  He 
was  to  them  an  odious  embodiment  of  the  abhorred 
principles  of  Abolitionism.  As  an  illustration  of  this 
bitter  feeling,  Mr.  Arnold  narrates  the  following  anec-
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     297 
dote :  "  A  distinguished  South  Carolina  lady  —  one 
of  the  Howards  —  the  widow  of  a  Northern  scholar, 
called  upon  him  out  of  curiosity.  She  was  very  proud 
and  aristocratic,  and  was  curious  to  see  a  man  who 
had  been  represented  to  her  as  a  monster,  a  mixture 
of  the  ape  and  the  tiger.  She  was  shown  into  the  room 
where  were  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Senators  Seward,  Hale, 
Chase,  and  other  prominent  members  of  Congress.  As 
Mr.  Seward,  whom  she  knew,  presented  her  to  the  Presi 
dent,  she  hissed  in  his  ear :  '  I  am  a  South  Carolinian.' 
Instantly  reading  her  character,  he  turned  and  ad 
dressed  her  with  the  greatest  courtesy,  and  dignified 
and  gentlemanly  politeness.  After  listening  a  few 
moments,  astonished  to  find  him  so  different  from  what 
he  had  been  described  to  her,  she  said :  '  Why,  Mr. 
Lincoln,  you  look,  act,  and  speak  like  a  kind,  good- 
hearted,  generous  man.'  *  And  did  you  expect  to  meet 
a  savage?  '  said  he.  '  Certainly  I  did,  or  even  some 
thing  worse,'  replied  she.  '  I  am  glad  I  have  met  you,' 
she  continued,  '  and  now  the  best  way  to  preserve  peace 
is  for  you  to  go  to  Charleston  and  show  the  people 
what  you  are,  and  tell  them  you  have  no  intention  of 
injuring  them.'  Returning  home,  she  found  a  party  of 
Secessionists,  and  on  entering  the  room  she  exclaimed, 
*  I  have  seen  him !  I  have  seen  him ! '  '  Who  ?  '  they 
inquired.  *  That  terrible  monster,  Lincoln,  and  I  found 
him  a  gentleman,  and  I  am  going  to  his  first  levee  after 
his  inauguration.'  At  his  first  reception,  this  tall 
daughter  of  South  Carolina,  dressing  herself  in  black 
velvet,  with  two  long  white  plumes  in  her  hair,  repaired 
to  the  White  House.  She  was  nearly  six  feet  high,  with 
black  eyes  and  black  hair,  and  in  her  velvet  and  white 
feathers  she  was  a  striking  and  majestic  figure.  As 
she  approached  the  President  he  recognized  her  imme 
diately.  '  Here  I  am  again,'  said  she,  *  that  South 
Carolinian.'  *  I  am  glad  to  see  you,'  replied  he,  '  and
298     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
to  assure  you  that  the  first  object  of  my  heart  is  to 
preserve  peace,  and  I  wish  that  not  only  you  but 
every  son  and  daughter  of  South  Carolina  were  here, 
that  I  might  tell  them  so.'  Mr.  Cameron,  Secretary 
of  War,  came  up,  and  after  some  remarks  he  said, 
'  South  Carolina  [which  had  already  seceded]  is  the 
prodigal  son.'  '  Ah,  Mr.  Secretary,'  said  she,  *  if 
South  Carolina  is  the  prodigal  son,  Uncle  Sam,  our 
father,  ought  to  divide  the  inheritance,  and  let  her 
go;  but  they  say  you  are  going  to  make  war  upon 
us ;  is  it  so  ?  '  '  Oh,  come  back,'  said  Lincoln,  '  tell 
South  Carolina  to  come  back  now,  and  we  will  kill  the 
fatted  calf.'" 
The  impression  which  Lincoln  made  on  those  who 
met  him  at  the  outset  of  his  career  as  President,  and 
their  varied  comments  and  descriptions,  are  matters 
of  peculiar  interest.  At  first,  many  people  did  not 
understand  him  —  hardly  knew  what  to  make  of  a 
personality  so  unlike  any  they  had  ever  seen  in  high 
places  before.  But  he  soon  began  to  show  those  quali 
ties  of  calm  self-reliance,  quickness  to  grasp  the  essen 
tial  factors  of  a  situation  and  readiness  to  meet  it, 
courage,  patience,  firmness,  breadth  of  view  and  kindli 
ness,  practical  tact  and  wisdom,  which  were  a  surprise 
to  all  who  knew  him,  and  are  now  seen  to  be  but  a.  rapid 
and  logical  unfolding,  under  the  stimulus  of  his  enor 
mous  responsibilities,  of  his  great  natural  powers.  The 
test  had  come,  the  crisis  was  upon  him;  and  he  met 
them  marvelously  well. 
General  W.  T.  Sherman  contributes  an  interesting 
reminiscence  at  this  point.  "  One  day,"  says  General 
Sherman,  "  my  brother,  Senator  Sherman,  took  me 
with  him  to  see  Mr.  Lincoln.  We  found  the  room  full 
of  people.  Mr.  Lincoln  sat  at  the  end  of  a  table, 
talking  with  three  or  four  gentlemen,  who  soon  left. 
John  walked  up,  shook  hands,  and  took  a  chair  near
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     299 
him,  holding  in  his  hand  some  papers  referring  to 
minor  appointments  in  the  State  of  Ohio,  which  formed 
the  subject  of  conversation.  Mr.  Lincoln  took  the 
papers,  said  he  would  refer  them  to  the  proper  heads 
of  departments,  and  would  be  glad  to  make  the  ap 
pointments  asked  for,  if  not  already  promised.  John 
then  turned  to  me,  and  said,  '  Mr.  President,  this  is 
my  brother,  Colonel  Sherman,  who  is  just  up  from 
Louisiana;  he  may  give  you  some  information  you 
want.'  '  Ah!  '  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  '  how  are  they  getting 
along  down  there?  '  I  said,  '  They  .think  they  are 
getting  along  swimmingly  —  they  are  preparing  for 
war.'  '  Oh,  well ! '  said  he,  *  /  guess  we  'II  manage  to 
keep  house.'  I  was  silenced,  said  no  more  to  him,  and 
we  soon  left.  I  was  sadly  disappointed,  and  remember 
that  I  broke  out  on  John,  cursing  the  politicians 
generally,  saying,  'You  have  got  things  in  a   of 
a  fix,  and  you  may  get  them  out  as  best  you  can,' 
adding  that  the  country  was  sleeping  on  a  volcano 
that  might  burst  forth  at  any  minute,  but  that  I  was 
going  to  St.  Louis  to  take  care  of  my  family,  and 
would  have  no  more  to  do  with  it.  John  begged  me 
to  be  more  patient,  but  I  said  I  would  not ;  that  I  had 
no  time  to  wait,  that  I  was  off  for  St.  Louis ;  and  off 
I  went." 
The  apartment  which  Lincoln  used  as  an  office  in 
which  to  transact  daily  business  and  to  receive  in 
formal  visits  was  on  the  second  floor  of  the  White 
House.  Its  simple  equipments  are  thus  described  by 
Mr.  Arnold :  "  It  was  about  twenty-five  by  forty  feet 
in  size.  In  the  centre,  on  the  west,  was  a  large  white 
marble  fireplace,  with  big  old-fashioned  brass  and 
irons,  and  a  large  and  high  brass  fender.  A  wood 
fire  was  burning  in  cool  weather.  The  large  windows 
opened  on  the  beautiful  lawn  to  the  south,  with  a  view 
of  the  unfinished  Washington  Monument,  the  Smith-
300     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
sonian  Institution,  the  Potomac,  Alexandria,  and  on 
down  the  river  toward  Mt.  Vernon.  Across  the  Poto 
mac  were  Arlington  Heights  and  Arlington  House,  late 
the  residence  of  Robert  E.  Lee.  On  the  hills  around, 
during  nearly  all  Lincoln's  administration,  were  the 
white  tents  of  soldiers,  field  fortifications  and  camps, 
and  in  every  direction  could  be  seen  the  brilliant  colors 
of  the  national  flag.  The  furniture  of  this  room 
consisted  of  a  large  oak  table  covered  with  cloth,  ex 
tending  north  and  south;  and  it  was  around  this  table 
that  the  Cabinet  sat  when  it  held  its  meetings.  Near 
the  end  of  the  table,  and  between  the  windows,  was 
another  table,  on  the  west  side  of  which  the  President 
sat  in  a  large  armchair,  and  at  this  table  he  wrote. 
A  tall  desk  with  pigeon-holes  for  papers  stood  against 
the  south  wall.  The  only  books  usually  found  in 
this  room  were  the  Bible,  the  United  States  Statutes, 
and  a  copy  of  Shakespeare.  There  were  a  few  chairs 
and  two  plain  hair-covered  sofas.  There  were  two  or 
three  map  frames,  from  which  hung  military  maps  on 
which  the  position  and  movements  of  the  armies  were 
traced.  On  the  mantel  was  an  old  and  discolored 
engraving  of  General  Jackson  and  a  later  photograph 
of  John  Bright.  Doors  opened  into  this  room  from 
the  room  of  the  Secretary,  and  from  the  outside  hall 
running  east  and  west  across  the  House.  A  bell  cord 
within  reach  of  his  hand  extended  to  the  Secretary's 
office.  A  messenger  who  stood  at  the  door  opening 
from  the  hall  took  in  the  cards  and  names  of  visitors. 
Here,  in  this  plain  room,  Lincoln  spent  most  of  his 
time  while  President.  Here  he  received  everyone,  from 
the  Chief  Justice  and  Lieutenant-General  to  the  pri 
vate  soldier  and  humblest  citizen.  Custom  had  fixed 
certain  rules  of  precedence,  and  the  order  in  which 
officials  should  be  received.  Members  of  the  Cabinet 
and  the  high  officers  of  the  army  and  navy  were  gener-
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     301 
ally  promptly  admitted.  Senators  and  members  of 
Congress  were  received  in  the  order  of  their  arrival. 
Sometimes  there  would  be  a  crowd  of  them  waiting 
their  turn.  While  thus  waiting,  the  loud  ringing 
laugh  of  Mr.  Lincoln  would  be  heard  by  the  waiting 
and  impatient  crowd.  Here,  day  after  day,  often 
from  early  morning  to  late  at  night,  Lincoln  sat, 
listened,  talked,  and  decided.  He  was  patient,  just, 
considerate,  and  hopeful.  The  people  came  to  him  as 
to  a  father.  He  saw  everyone,  and  many  wasted 
his  precious  time.  Governors,  Senators,  Congressmen, 
officers,  clergymen,  bankers,  merchants  —  all  classes 
approached  him  with  familiarity.  This  incessant 
labor,  the  study  of  the  great  problems  he  had  to 
decide,  the  worry  of  constant  importunity,  the  quarrels 
of  officers  of  the  army,  the  care,  anxiety,  and  re 
sponsibility  of  his  position,  wore  upon  his  vigorous 
frame." 
Mr.  Ben.  Perley  Poore  states  that  "  the  White 
House,  while  Mr.  Lincoln  occupied  it,  was  a  fertile  field 
for  news,  which  he  was  always  ready  to  give  those 
correspondents  in  whom  he  had  confidence ;  but  the 
surveillance  of  the  press  —  first  by  Secretary  Seward, 
and  then  by  Secretary  Stanton  —  was  as  annoying 
as  it  was  inefficient.  .  .  .  Often  when  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
engaged,  correspondents  would  send  in  their  cards, 
bearing  requests  for  some  desired  item  of  news  or  for 
the  verification  of  some  rumor.  He  would  either  come 
out  and  give  the  coveted  information,  or  he  would 
write  it  on  the  back  of  the  card  and  send  it  to  the 
owner.  He  wrote  a  legible  hand,  slowly  and  laboriously 
perfecting  his  sentences  before  he  placed  them  on 
paper.  The  long  epistles  that  he  wrote  to  his  gen 
erals  he  copied  himself,  not  wishing  anyone  else  to  see 
them,  and  these  copies  were  kept  in  pigeon-holes  for 
reference.  .  Mr.  Lincoln  used  to  wear  at  the  White
302     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
House  in  the  morning,  and  after  dinner,  a  long-skirted 
faded  dressing-gown,  belted  around  his  waist,  and 
slippers.  His  favorite  attitude  when  listening  —  and 
he  was  a  good  listener  —  was  to  lean  forward,  and 
clasp  his  left  knee  with  both  hands,  as  if  fondling  it, 
and  his  face  would  then  wear  a  sad  and  wearied  look. 
But  when  the  time  came  for  him  to  give  an  opinion 
on  what  he  had  heard,  or  to  tell  a  story  which  some 
thing  '  reminded  him  of,'  his  face  would  lighten  up 
with  its  homely,  rugged  smile,  and  he  would  run  his 
fingers  through  his  bristly  black  hair,  which  would 
stand  out  in  every  direction  like  that  of  an  electric 
experiment  doll." 
John  G.  Nicolay,  afterward  Lincoln's  private  secre 
tary,  says :  "  The  people  beheld  in  the  new  President 
a  man  six  feet  four  inches  in  height,  a  stature  which 
of  itself  would  be  hailed  in  any  assemblage  as  one  of 
the  outward  signs  of  leadership;  joined  to  this  was  a 
spare  but  muscular  frame,  and  large  strongly-marked 
features  corresponding  to  his  unusual  stature.  Quiet 
in  demeanor  but  erect  in  bearing,  his  face  even  in  re 
pose  was  not  unattractive;  and  when  lit  up  by  his 
open,  genial  smile,  or  illuminated  in  the  utterance  of 
a  strong  or  stirring  thought,  his  countenance  was  posi 
tively  handsome.  His  voice,  pitched  in  rather  a  high 
key,  but  of  great  clearness  and  penetration,  made  his 
public  remarks  audible  to  a  wide  circle  of  listeners." 
Henry  Champion  Deming  says  of  Lincoln's  appear 
ance  at  this  time :  "  Conceive  a  tall  and  giant  figure, 
more  than  six  feet  in  height,  not  only  unencumbered 
with  superfluous  flesh,  but  reduced  to  the  minimum 
working  standard  of  cord  and  sinew  and  muscle,  strong 
and  indurated  by  exposure  and  toil,  with  legs  and 
arms  long  and  attenuated,  but  not  disproportionately 
to  the  long  and  attenuated  trunk;  in  posture  and  car 
riage  not  ungraceful,  but  with  the  grace  of  unstudied
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     303 
and  careless  ease  rather  than  of  cultivated  airs  and 
high-bred  pretensions.  His  dress  is  uniformly  of  black 
throughout,  and  would  attract  but  little  attention  in 
a  well-dressed  circle,  if  it  hung  less  loosely  upon  him, 
and  if  the  ample  white  shirt  collar  were  not  turned 
over  his  cravat  in  Western  style.  The  face  that  sur 
mounts  this  figure  is  half  Roman  and  half  Indian, 
bronzed  by  climate,  furrowed  by  life  struggles,  seamed 
with  humor;  the  head  is  massive  and  covered  with 
dark,  thick,  and  unmanageable  hair;  the  brow  is  wide 
and  well  developed,  the  nose  large  and  fleshy,  the  lips 
full,  cheeks  thin  and  drawn  down  in  strong,  corded 
lines,  which,  but  for  the  wiry  whiskers,  would  disclose 
the  machinery  which  moves  the  broad  jaw.  The  eyes 
are  dark  gray,  sunk  in  deep  sockets,  but  bright,  soft 
and  beautiful  in  expression,  sometimes  lost  and  half 
abstracted,  as  if  their  glance  was  reversed  and  turned 
inward,  or  as  if  the  soul  which  lighted  them  was  far 
away.  The  teeth  are  white  and  regular,  and  it  is  only 
when  a  smile,  radiant,  captivating,  and  winning  as  was 
ever  given  to  mortal,  transfigures  the  plain  counte 
nance,  that  you  begin  to  realize  that  it  is  not  impos 
sible  for  artists  to  admire  and  women  to  love  it." 
Mr.  John  Bigelow,  who  was  appointed  consul  to 
Paris  in  1861,  and  was  afterwards  minister  to  France, 
describes  in  his  "  Retrospections  of  an  Active  Life  " 
his  first  visit  to  Lincoln  and  the  impressions  gained  by 
him  at  that  early  period  in  Lincoln's  official  career. 
"  The  day  following  my  arrival  in  Washington  Pres 
ton  King,  Senator  from  New  York,  invited  me  to  go 
with  him  to  be  presented  to  President  Lincoln,  an 
invitation  which  of  course  I  embraced  with  alacrity ; 
for  as  yet  I  had  not  met  him,  and  knew  him  only  by  his 
famous  senatorial  campaign  against  Douglas  in  Illi 
nois  and  the  masterly  address  which  he  delivered  at 
the  Cooper  Institute  shortly  before  his  nomination  in
304     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
New  York.  .  .  .  The  new  President  received  us  in  his 
private  room  at  an  early  hour  of  the  morning;  another 
gentleman  was  with  him  at  the  time,  a  member  of  the 
Senate,  I  believe.  We  were  with  him  from  a  half  to 
three-quarters  of  an  hour.  The  conversation,  in  which 
I  took  little  or  no  part,  turned  upon  the  operations  in 
the  field.  I  observed  no  sign  of  weakness  in  anything 
the  President  said;  neither  did  I  hear  anything  that 
particularly  impressed  me,  which,  under  the  circum 
stances,  was  not  surprising.  What  did  impress  me, 
however,  was  what  I  can  only  describe  as  a  certain 
lack  of  sovereignty.  He  seemed  to  me,  nor  was  it  in 
the  least  strange  that  he  did,  like  a  man  utterly  un 
conscious  of  the  space  which  the  President  of  the 
United  States  occupied  that  day  in  the  history  of  the 
human  race,  and  of  the  vast  power  for  the  exercise 
of  which  he  had  become  personally  responsible.  This 
impression  was  strengthened  by  Mr.  Lincoln's  modest 
habit  of  disclaiming  knowledge  of  affairs  and  familiar 
ity  with  duties,  and  frequent  avowals  of  ignorance, 
which,  even  where  it  exists,  it  is  as  well  for  a  captain 
as  far  as  possible  to  conceal  from  the  public.  The 
authority  of  an  executive  officer  largely  consists  in 
what  his  constituents  think  it  is.  Up  to  that  time 
Mr.  Lincoln  had  had  few  opportunities  of  showing  the 
nation  the  qualities  which  won  all  hearts  and  made  him 
one  of  the  most  conspicuous  and  enduring  historic 
characters  of  the  century." 
Some  uncommonly  vivid  "  first  impressions  "  of  Lin 
coln  are  given  in  the  Journals  of  Ralph  Waldo  Emer 
son,  who  early  in  February  of  1862  made  a  visit  to 
Washington  for  the  purpose  of  delivering  a  lecture 
before  the  Smithsonian  Institution  —  a  lecture  which 
Lincoln  is  said  to  have  attended.  A  day  or  two 
afterwards  Emerson  was  taken  by  Senator  Sumner 
of  Massachusetts  to  call  at  the  White  House.  "The
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     305 
President  impressed  me,"  says  Emerson,  "  more  favor 
ably  than  I  had  hoped.  A  frank,  sincere,  well-meaning 
man,  with  a  lawyer's  habit  of  mind,  good  clear  state 
ment  of  his  facts;  correct  enough,  not  vulgar,  as 
described,  but  with  a  sort  of  boyish  cheerfulness,  or 
that  kind  of  sincerity  and  jolly  good  meaning  that 
our  class-meetings  on  Commencement  Days  show,  in 
telling  our  old  stories  over.  When  he  has  made  his 
remark  he  looks  up  at  you  with  great  satisfaction,  and 
shows  all  his  white  teeth,  and  laughs.  .  .  .  When  I 
was  introduced  to  him  he  said,  '  Oh,  Mr.  Emerson,  I 
once  heard  you  say  in  a  lecture  that  a  Kentuckian 
seems  to  say  by  his  air  and  manners,  "  Here  am  I ; 
if  you  don't  like  me,  the  worse  for  you."  (The 
point  of  this  of  course  is  that  Lincoln  was  himself  a 
Kentuckian. )  A  day  or  two  later  Emerson  again  called 
on  the  President,  this  time  in  the  company  of  Secre 
tary  Seward.  It  being  Sunday  evening,  Seward  asked 
the  President  if  he  had  been  to  church,  to  which  the 
latter  answered  that  he  had  not  —  that  he  had  been 
reading,  for  the  first  time,  Senator  Sumner's  speech 
in  the  Senate  on  the  Trent  affair.  This  was  followed 
by  some  general  conversation  on  the  Trent  affair,  in 
which  the  President  expressed  his  gratification  at  the 
friendly  attitude  taken  in  the  matter  by  France  and 
Spain. 
Private  Secretary  Hay  thus  writes  of  Lincoln's 
character  and  disposition :  "  All  agree  that  the  most 
marked  characteristic  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  manners  was 
his  simplicity  and  artlessness ;  this  immediately  im 
pressed  itself  upon  the  observation  of  those  who  met 
him  for  the  first  time,  and  each  successive  interview 
deepened  the  impression.  People  seemed  delighted  to 
find  in  the  ruler  of  the  nation  freedom  from  pomposity 
and  affectation,  mingled  with  a  certain  simple  dignity 
wrhich  never  forsook  him.  Though  oppressed  with  the
306     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
weight  of  responsibility  resting  upon  him  as  President 
of  the  United  States,  he  shrank  from  assuming  any 
of  the  honors,  or  even  the  titles,  of  the  position.  After 
years  of  intimate  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  the 
writer  cannot  now  recall  a  single  instance  in  which 
he  spoke  of  himself  as  President,  or  used  that  title 
for  himself  except  when  acting  in  an  official  capacity. 
He  always  spoke  of  his  position  and  office  vaguely,  as, 
'  this  place,'  '  here,'  or  other  modest  phrase.  Once, 
speaking  of  the  room  in  the  Capitol  used  by  the  Presi 
dents  of  the  United  States  during  the  close  of  a  session 
of  Congress,  he  said,  '  That  room,  you  know,  that  they 
call  '  —  dropping  his  voice  and  hesitating  —  '  the 
President's  room.'  To  an  intimate  friend  who  ad 
dressed  him  always  by  his  own  proper  title,  he  said, 
'  Now  call  me  Lincoln,  and  I  '11  promise  not  to  tell  of 
the  breach  of  etiquette  —  if  you  won't  —  and  I  shall 
have  a  resting-spell  from  "  Mister  President."  With 
all  his  simplicity  and  unacquaintance  with  courtly  man 
ners,  his  native  dignity  never  forsook  him  in  the  pres 
ence  of  critical  polished  strangers ;  but  mixed  with 
his  angularities  and  bonhomie  was  something  which 
spoke  the  fine  fiber  of  the  man;  and  while  his  sovereign 
disregard  of  courtly  conventionalities  was  somewhat 
ludicrous,  his  native  sweetness  and  straightforwardness 
of  manner  served  to  disarm  criticism  and  impress  the 
visitor  that  he  was  before  a  man  pure,  self-poised, 
collected,  and  strong  in  unconscious  strength.  Of 
him,  an  accomplished  foreigner,  whose  knowledge  of 
the  courts  was  more  perfect  than  that  of  the  English 
language,  said.  '  He  seems  to  me  one  grand  gentilhomme 
in  disguise.'  '  Mr.  Hay  adds  that  Lincoln's  sim 
plicity  of  manner  "  was  marked  in  his  total  lack  of 
consideration  of  what  was  due  his  exalted  station.  He 
had  an  almost  morbid  dread  of  what  he  called  '  a  scene  ' 
—  that  is,  a  demonstration  of  applause,  such  as  always
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     307 
greeted  his  appearance  in  public.  The  first  sign  of  a 
cheer  sobered  him;  he  appeared  sad  and  oppressed, 
suspended  conversation,  and  looked  out  into  vacancy; 
and  when  it  was  over,  resumed  the  conversation  just 
wrhere  it  was  interrupted,  with  an  obvious  feeling  of 
relief.  .  .  .  Speaking  of  an  early  acquaintance  who  was 
an  applicant  for  an  office  which  he  thought  him  hardly 
qualified  to  fill,  the  President  said,  '  Well,  now,  I  never 
thought  M —  -  had  any  more  than  average  ability, 
when  we  were  young  men  together;  really  I  did  not.' 
[A  pause.]  '  But,  then,  I  suppose  he  thought  just  the 
same  about  me ;  he  had  reason  to,  and  —  here  I  am  !  ' 
General  Carl  Schurz  says :  "  In  the  White  House,  as 
in  his  simple  home  in  Springfield,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  the 
same  plain,  unaffected,  unpretentious  citizen.  He  won 
the  admiration  and  affection  of  even  the  most  punc 
tilious  of  the  foreign  diplomats  by  the  tenderness  of 
his  nature  and  the  touching  simplicity  of  his  demeanor. 
.  .  .  He  was,  in  mind  and  heart,  the  very  highest 
type  of  development  of  a  plain  man.  He  was  a  born 
leader  of  men,  and  the  qualities  that  made  him  a 
leader  were  of  the  plain,  common-sense  type.  .  .  .  Lin 
coln  had  one  great  advantage  over  all  the  chief  states 
men  of  his  day.  He  had  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
the  plain  people.  He  knew  their  habits,  their  modes 
of  thought,  their  unfailing  sense  of  justice  and  right. 
He  relied  upon  the  popular  feeling,  in  great  measure, 
for  his  guidance." 
Mrs.  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  said  of  the  qualities 
which  Lincoln  exhibited  in  the  White  House :  "  Lin 
coln  is  a  strong  man,  but  his  strength  is  of  a  peculiar 
kind;  it  is  not  aggressive  so  much  as  passive;  and 
among  passive  things,  it  is  like,  the  strength  not  so 
much  of  a  stone  buttress  as  of  a  wire  cable.  It  is 
strength  swaying  to  every  influence,  yielding  on  this 
side  and  on  that,  to  popular  needs,  yet  tenaciously
308     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
and  inflexibly  bound  to  carry  its  great  end.  .  .  .  Slow 
and  careful  in  coming  to  resolutions,  willing  to  talk 
with  every  person  who  has  anything  to  show  on  any 
side  of  a  disputed  subject,  long  in  weighing  and  pon 
dering,  attached  to  constitutional  limits  and  time- 
honored  landmarks,  Lincoln  certainly  was  the  safest 
leader  a  nation  could  have  at  a  time  when  the  habeas 
corpus  must  be  suspended  and  all  the  constitutional 
and  minor  rights  of  citizens  be  thrown  into  the  hands 
of  their  military  leader.  A  reckless,  bold,  theorizing, 
dashing  man  of  genius  might  have  wrecked  our 
Constitution  and  ended  us  in  a  splendid  military 
despotism." 
The  fear  lest  the  virulent  enemies  of  the  adminis 
tration  should  attempt  to  assassinate  Lincoln  was  so 
wide-spread  that  military  measures  were  enforced  to 
protect  him  from  secret  assault.  General  Charles  P. 
Stone,  to  whom  the  duty  was  entrusted  of  establishing 
the  necessary  precautions,  has  furnished  a  brief  report 
on  the  subject.  "From  the  first,"  says  General  Stone, 
"  I  took,  under  the  orders  of  the  General-in-chief,  es 
pecial  care  in  guarding  the  Executive  Mansion  —  with 
out,  however,  doing  it  so  ostentatiously  as  to  attract 
public  attention.  It  was  not  considered  advisable  that 
it  should  appear  that  the  President  of  the  United 
States  was,  for  his  personal  safety,  obliged  to  sur 
round  himself  by  armed  guards.  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
not  consulted  in  the  matter.  But  Captain  Todd, 
formerly  an  officer  of  the  regular  army,  who  was,  I 
believe,  the  brother-in-law  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  was  then 
residing  in  the  Presidential  Mansion,  and  with  him  I 
was  daily  and  nightly  in  communication,  in  order  that 
in  case  of  danger  one  person  in  the  President's  house 
hold  should  know  where  to  find  the  main  body  of  the 
guard,  to  the  officer  commanding  which  Captain  Todd 
was  each  night  introduced.  Double  sentries  were
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     309 
placed  in  the  shrubbery  all  around  the  mansion,  and 
the  main  body  of  the  guard  was  posted  in  a  vacant 
basement-room,  from  which  a  staircase  led  to  the 
upper  floors.  A  person  entering  by  the  main  gate  and 
walking  up  to  the  front  door  of  the  Executive  Man 
sion  during  the  night  could  see  no  sign  of  a  guard; 
but  from  the  moment  anyone  entered  the  grounds  by 
any  entrance,  he  was  under  the  view  of  at  least  two 
riflemen  standing  silent  in  the  shrubbery,  and  any 
suspicious  movement  on  his  part  would  have  caused 
his  immediate  arrest;  while  inside,  the  call  of  Cap 
tain  Todd  would  have  been  promptly  answered  by 
armed  men.  The  precautions  were  taken  before  Fort 
Sumter  was  fired  on,  as  well  as  afterward.  One  night 
near  midnight,"  continues  General  Stone,  "  I  entered 
the  grounds  for  the  purpose  of  inspecting  the  guard, 
and  was  surprised  to  see  a  bright  light  in  the  East 
room.  As  I  entered  the  basement  I  heard  a  loud 
noise,  as  of  many  voices  talking  loudly,  mingled  with 
the  ringing  of  arms,  coming  from  the  great  reception 
room.  On  questioning  the  commander  of  the  guard, 
I  learned  that  many  gentlemen  had  entered  the  house 
at  a  late  hour,  but  they  had  come  in  boldly;  no  objec 
tion  had  been  made  from  within,  but  on  the  contrary 
Captain  Todd  had  told  him  all  was  right.  I  ascended 
the  interior  staircase  and  entered  the  East  room,  where 
I  found  more  than  fifty  men,  among  whom  were  Hon. 
Cassius  M.  Clay  and  General  Lane.  All  were  armed 
with  muskets,  which  they  were  generally  examining, 
and  it  was  the  ringing  of  many  rammers  in  the  musket 
barrels  which  had  caused  the  noise  I  had  heard.  Mr. 
Clay  informed  me  that  he  and  a  large  number  of  politi 
cal  friends,  deeming  it  very  improper  that  the  Presi 
dent's  person  should  in  such  times  be  unguarded,  had 
formed  a  voluntary  guard  which  would  remain  there 
every  night  and  see  to  it  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  well
310     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
protected.  I  applauded  the  good  spirit  exhibited,  but 
did  not,  however,  cease  the  posting  of  the  outside 
guards,  nor  the  nightly  inspections  myself  as  before, 
until  the  time  came  when  others  than  myself  became 
responsible  for  the  safety  of  the  President." 
It  is  stated  that  Lincoln  "  had  an  almost  morbid 
dislike  to  an  escort,  or  guard,  and  daily  exposed  him 
self  to  the  deadly  aim  of  an  assassin."  To  the  remon 
strances  of  friends,  who  feared  his  constant  exposure  to 
danger,  he  had  but  one  answer :  "  If  they  kill  me,  the 
next  man  will  be  just  as  bad  for  them;  and  in  a 
country  like  this,  where  our  habits  are  simple,  and 
must  be,  assassination  is  always  possible,  and  will 
come  if  they  are  determined  upon  it."  A  cavalry 
guard  was  once  placed  at  the  gates  of  the  White  House 
for  a  while,  and  Lincoln  said  that  he  "  worried  until 
he  got  rid  of  it."  He  once  remarked  to  Colonel  Hal- 
pine  :  "  It  would  never  do  for  a  President  to  have 
guards  with  drawn  sabers  at  his  door,  as  if  he  fancied 
he  were,  or  were  trying  to  be,  or  were  assuming  to  be, 
an  emperor."  While  the  President's  family  were  at 
their  summer-house,  near  Washington,  he  rode  into 
town  of  a  morning,  or  out  at  night,  attended  by  a 
mounted  escort;  but  if  he  returned  to  town  for  a 
while  after  dark,  he  rode  in  unguarded,  and  often 
alone,  in  his  open  carriage.  On  more  than  one  occa 
sion,  the  same  writer  tells  us,  he  "  has  gone  through 
the  streets  of  Washington  at  a  late  hour  of  the  night 
with  the  President,  without  escort,  or  even  the  company 
of  a  servant,  walking  all  the  way,  going  and  returning. 
Considering  the  many  open  and  secret  threats  to  take 
his  life,  it  is  not  surprising  that  Lincoln  had  many 
thoughts  about  his  coming  to  a  sudden  and  violent 
end.  He  once  said  that  he  felt  the  force  of  the  expres 
sion,  '  To  take  one's  life  in  his  hand  ' ;  but  that  he 
would  not  like  to  face  death  suddenly.  He  said  that
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     311 
he  thought  himself  a  great  coward  physically,  and 
was  sure  that  he  would  make  a  poor  soldier,  for  unless 
there  was  something  inspiriting  in  the  excitement  of 
a  battle  he  was  sure  that  he  would  drop  his  gun  and 
run  at  the  first  symptom  of  danger.  That  was  said 
sportively,  and  he  added,  '  Moral  cowardice  is  some 
thing  which  I  think  I  never  had.'  "
CHAPTER    XVI 
Civil  War  — Uprising  of  the  Nation  — The  President's  First  Call  for 
Troops  —  Response  of  the  Loyal  North  —  The  Riots  in  Baltimore 
—  Loyalty  of  Stephen  A.  Douglas  —  Douglas's  Death  —  Blockade 
of  Southern  Ports  —  Additional  War  Measures  —  Lincoln  Defines 
the  Policy  of  the  Government  —  His  Conciliatory  Course  —  His 
Desire  to  Save  Kentucky  —  The  President's  First  Message  to  Con 
gress  —  Gathering  of  Troops  in  Washington  —  Reviews  and  Parades 
—  Disaster  at  Bull  Run  —  The  President  Visits  the  Army  —  Good 
Advice  to  an  Angry  Officer  —  A  Peculiar  Cabinet  Meeting  —  Dark 
Days  for  Lincoln  —  A  "Black  Mood"  in  the  White  House  —  Lin 
coln's  Unfaltering  Courage  —  Relief  in  Story-telling  —  A  Pretty 
Good  Land  Title  —  "Measuring  up"  with  Charles  Sumner  —  Gen 
eral  Scott  "Unable  as  a  Politician"  —  A  Good  Drawing-plaster  — 
The  New  York  Millionaires  who  Wanted  a  Gunboat  —  A  Good 
Bridge-builder  —  A  Sick  Lot  of  Office-seekers. 
THE  Confederate  attack  upon  Fort  Sumter  —  a 
United  States  fort  situated  at  the  mouth  of 
Charleston  Harbor,  South  Carolina  —  April  12,  1861, 
was  the  signal  that  civil  war  had  actually  begun.  Lin 
coln  had  thus  far  maintained  a  conciliatory  policy 
toward  the  States  in  rebellion,  hoping  to  the  last  that 
good  sense  and  reason  prevailing  over  rash  and  violent 
impulses  would  induce  them  to  resume  their  allegiance 
to  the  Government.  Their  resort  to  arms  and  capture 
of  forts  and  property  of  the  United  States  decided 
the  course  of  the  administration;  and  on  the  15th  of 
April  —  forty-two  days  after  his  accession  to  the 
Presidency  —  Lincoln  issued  a  proclamation  asking 
for  the  immediate  enlistment  of  75,000  volunteers,1 
1  This  first  call  for  troops  was  supplemented  a  month  later  (May  16) 
by  a  call  for  42,034  volunteers  for  three  years,  for  22,114  officers  and 
men  for  the  regular  army,  and  18,000  seamen  for  the  navy.
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     313 
and  summoning  Congress  to  convene  in  an  extra  ses 
sion  on  the  4th  of  July.  The  call  was  sent  forth 
in  the  following  form : 
PROCLAMATION. 
By  the  President  of  the  United  States. 
WHEREAS,  the  laws  of  the  United  States  have  been 
for  some  time  past  and  now  are  opposed  and  the 
execution  thereof  obstructed  in  the  States  of  South. 
Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Florida,  Mississippi, 
Louisiana  and  Texas,  by  combinations  too  powerful 
to  be  suppressed  by  the  ordinary  course  of  judicial 
proceedings,  or  by  the  powers  vested  in  the  marshals 
by  law;  now,  therefore,  I,  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States,  in  virtue  of  the  power  in 
me  vested  by  the  Constitution  and  the  laws,  have 
thought  fit  to  call  forth,  and  hereby  do  call  forth,  the 
militia  of  the  several  States  of  the  Union,  to  the  aggre 
gate  number  of  seventy-five  thousand,  in  order  to  sup 
press  said  combinations  and  to  cause  the  laws  to  be 
duly  executed. 
The  details  of  this  object  will  be  immediately  com 
municated  to  the  State  authorities  through  the  War 
Department.  I  appeal  to  all  loyal  citizens  to  favor, 
facilitate,  and  aid  this  effort  to  maintain  the  honor, 
the  integrity  and  existence  of  our  National  Union,  and 
the  perpetuity  of  popular  government,  and  to  redress 
wrongs  already  long  enough  endured.  I  deem  it  proper 
to  say  that  the  first  service  assigned  to  the  forces 
hereby  called  forth  will  probably  be  to  repossess  the 
forts,  places,  and  property  which  have  been  seized  from 
the  Union;  and  in  every  event  the  utmost  care  will 
be  observed,  consistently  with  the  objects  aforesaid,  to 
avoid  any  devastation,  any  destruction  of,  or  inter 
ference  with,  property,  or  any  disturbance  of  peaceful 
citizens  of  any  part  of  the  country;  and  I  hereby 
command  the  persons  composing  the  combinations
314     EVERY-DAY   LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
aforesaid    to    disperse    and    retire   peaceably    to    their 
respective  abodes,  within  twenty  days  from  this  date. 
Deeming  that  the  present  condition  of  public  affairs 
presents  an  extraordinary  occasion,  I  do  hereby,  in  vir 
tue  of  the  power  in  me  vested  by  the  Constitution,  con 
vene  both  Houses  of  Congress.  The  Senators  and 
Representatives  are,  therefore,  summoned  to  assemble 
at  their  respective  chambers,  at  twelve  o'clock,  noon,  on 
Thursday,  the  fourth  day  of  July  next,  then  and 
there  to  consider  and  determine  such  measures  as,  in 
their  wisdom,  the  public  safety  and  interest  may  seem 
to  demand. 
In  witness  whereof  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and 
caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 
Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  fifteenth  day 
of  April,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  sixty-one,  and  of  the  independence  of 
the  United  States  the  eighty-fifth. 
By  the  President,     ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  State. 
The  issue  of  this  proclamation  created  the  wildest 
enthusiasm  throughout  the  North.  Scarcely  a  voice 
was  raised  against  it,  as  it  was  seen  to  be  a  measure 
of  absolute  necessity  and  of  self-defense  on  the  part 
of  the  Government.  "  Every  Northern  State,"  says 
Mr.  Henry  I.  Raymond,  "  responded  promptly  to  the 
President's  demand,  and  from  private  persons,  as  well 
as  by  the  Legislatures,  men,  arms,  and  money  were 
offered  in  unstinted  profusion,  and  with  the  most 
zealous  alacrity,  in  support  of  the  Government. 
Massachusetts  was  first  in  the  field,  and  on  the  first 
day  after  the  issue  of  the  proclamation  her  Sixth 
regiment,  completely  equipped,  started  from  Boston 
for  the  national  capital.  Two  more  regiments  were 
also  made  ready,  and  took  their  departure  within 
forty-eight  hours."
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     315 
The  Sixth  Massachusetts  regiment  was  attacked  on 
its  way  to  Washington,  on  the  19th  of  April,  by  a  mob 
in  Baltimore,  carrying  a  Confederate  flag,  and  several 
of  its  members  were  killed  or  severely  wounded.  "  This," 
continues  Mr.  Raymond,  "  inflamed  to  a  still  higher 
point  the  excitement  which  already  pervaded  the  coun 
try.  The  whole  Northern  section  of  the  Union  felt 
outraged  that  troops  should  be  assailed  and  murdered 
on  their  way  to  protect  the  capital  of  the  nation. 
In  Maryland,  where  the  secession  party  was  strong, 
there  was  also  great  excitement,  and  the  Governor 
of  the  State  and  the  Mayor  of  Baltimore  united  in 
urging,  for  prudential  reasons,  that  no  more  troops 
should  be  brought  through  that  city."  In  answer  to 
the  remonstrances  of  Governor  Hicks  and  a  com 
mittee  from  Maryland,  who  presented  their  petition 
in  person,  Lincoln,  intent  on  avoiding  every  cause  of 
offense,  and  with  a  forbearance  that  now  seems  in 
credible,  replied :  "  Troops  must  be  brought  here ;  but 
I  make  no  point  of  bringing  them  through  Baltimore. 
Without  any  military  knowledge  myself,  of  course  I 
must  leave  details  to  General  Scott.  He  hastily  said 
this  morning,  in  the  presence  of  these  gentlemen, 
'  March  them  around  Baltimore,  and  not  through  it.' 
I  sincerely  hope  the  General,  on  fuller  reflection,  will 
consider  this  practical  and  proper,  and  that  you  will 
not  object  to  it.  By  this,  a  collision  of  the  people 
of  Baltimore  with  the  troops  will  be  avoided,  unless 
they  go  out  of  their  way  to  seek  it.  I  hope  you  will 
exert  your  influence  to  prevent  this.  Now  and  ever, 
I  shall  do  all  in  my  power  for  peace,  consistently  with 
the  maintenance  of  the  Government." 
One  of  the  most  encouraging  incidents  of  this  open 
ing  chapter  of  the  war  was  the  announcement  that 
Stephen  A.  Douglas,  the  great  leader  of  the  Democracy 
and  the  life-long  political  opponent  of  Lincoln,  had
316     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
declared  his  purpose  to  stand  by  the  Government. 
The  effect  of  this  action,  at  this  crisis,  was  most  salu 
tary;  it  ranged  the  Northern  Democrats  with  the  de 
fenders  of  the  Union,  and  gave  Lincoln  a  united  North 
as  the  act  of  no  other  individual  could  have  done. 
From  that  time  until  his  death  Douglas  never  faltered 
in  his  loyalty,  and  stood  by  the  Government  with  a 
zeal  and  patriotism  which  were  above  all  lower  con 
siderations  of  person  or  of  party.  On  Sunday,  the 
14th  of  April,  when  Washington  was  thrilling  with 
excitement  over  the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter,  Douglas  called 
on  the  President  and  after  a  brief  conversation  author 
ized  a  statement  to  be  telegraphed  throughout  the 
country  that  he  was  "  fully  prepared  to  sustain  the 
President  in  the  exercise  of  all  his  Constitutional  func 
tions,  to  preserve  the  Union,  maintain  the  Govern 
ment,  and  defend  the  Federal  capital.  A  firm  policy 
and  prompt  action  were  necessary.  The  capital  was 
in  danger,  and  must  be  defended  at  all  hazards,  and 
at  any  expense  of  men  and  money."  Faithful  to  his 
pledge,  Douglas  immediately  set  out  upon  a  tour 
through  the  Northwest,  to  strengthen,  by  his  words 
and  presence,  the  spirit  of  loyalty  among  the  people. 
He  made  a  series  of  eloquent  speeches  on  his  journey 
to  Chicago,  where  he  arrived  worn  and  spent  with  the 
fatigue  and  excitement  of  his  undertaking.  It  was 
the  last  and  noblest  service  of  his  life.  Illness  ensued, 
and  after  a  few  weeks  of  suffering  he  passed  away, 
June  3,  at  the  age  of  forty-eight.  His  death  was  an 
irreparable  loss,  mourned  by  the  President  and  the 
nation. 
The  President's  call  for  troops  was  succeeded  on  the 
19th  of  April  by  a  proclamation  declaring  a  blockade 
of  Southern  ports.  The  text  of  this  document  is 
historically  important,  as  definitely  formulating  the 
attitude  and  policy  of  the  Government.
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     317 
Whereas,  An  insurrection  against  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  has  broken  out  in  the  States  of 
South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Florida,  Missis 
sippi,  Louisiana,  and  Texas,  and  the  laws  of  the 
United  States  for  the  collection  of  the  revenue  cannot 
be  efficiently  executed  therein,  conformably  to  that 
provision  of  the  Constitution  which  requires  duties  to 
be  uniform  throughout  the  United  States : 
And  whereas,  A  combination  of  persons,  engaged  in 
such  insurrection,  have  threatened  to  grant  pretended 
letters  of  marque  to  authorize  the  bearers  thereof  to 
commit  assaults  on  the  lives,  vessels,  and  property  of 
good  citizens  of  the  country  lawfully  engaged  in  com 
merce  on  the  high  seas,  and  in  waters  of  the  United 
States : 
And  whereas,  An  Executive  Proclamation  has  al 
ready  been  issued,  requiring  the  persons  engaged  in 
these  disorderly  proceedings  to  desist  therefrom, 
calling  out  a  militia,  force  for  the  purpose  of 
repressing  the  same,  and  convening  Congress  in 
extraordinary  session  to  deliberate  and  determine 
thereon : 
Now,  therefore,  I,  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  President  of 
the  United  States,  with  a  view  to  the  same  purposes 
before  mentioned,  and  to  the  protection  of  the  public 
peace,  and  the  lives  and  property  of  quiet  and  orderly 
citizens  pursuing  their  lawful  occupations,  until  Con 
gress  shall  have  assembled  and  deliberated  on  the  said 
unlawful  proceedings,  or  until  the  same  shall  have 
ceased,  have  further  deemed  it  advisable  to  set  on  foot 
a  blockade  of  the  ports  within  the  States  aforesaid,  in 
pursuance  of  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  and  of 
the  laws  of  nations  in  such  cases  provided.  For  this 
purpose  a  competent  force  will  be  posted  so  as  to 
prevent  entrance  and  exit  of  vessels  from  the  ports 
aforesaid.  If,  therefore,  with  a  view  to  violate  such 
blockade,  a  vessel  shall  approach  or  shall  attempt  to 
leave  any  of  the  said  ports,  she  shall  be  duly  warned 
by  the  commander  of  one  of  the  blockading  vessels,
318     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
who  shall  indorse  on  her  register  the  fact  and  date  of 
such  warning;  and  if  the  same  vessel  shall  again 
attempt  to  enter  or  leave  the  blockaded  port,  she  will 
be  captured  and  sent  to  the  nearest  convenient  port, 
for  such  proceedings  against  her  and  her  cargo,  as 
prize,  as  may  be  deemed  advisable. 
And  I  hereby  proclaim  and  declare,  that  if  any 
person,  under  the  pretended  authority  of  said  States, 
or  under  any  other  pretense,  shall  molest  a  vessel  of 
the  United  States,  or  the  persons  or  cargo  on  board 
of  her,  such  person  will  be  held  amenable  to  the  laws 
of  the  United  States  for  the  prevention  and  punish 
ment  of  piracy. 
By  the  President,     ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  State. 
WASHINGTON,  April  19,  1861. 
On  the  27th  of  April  the  President  issued  a  proc 
lamation  by  which  the  blockade  of  Southern  ports 
was  extended  to  the  ports  of  North  Carolina  and  Vir 
ginia.  And  on  the  16th  of  May,  by  another  procla 
mation,  the  President  directed  the  commander  of  the 
United  States  forces  in  Florida  to  "  permit  no  person 
to  exercise  any  office  or  authority  upon  the  islands 
of  Key  West,  Tortugas,  and  Santa  Rosa,  which  may 
be  inconsistent  with  the  laws  and  Constitution  of  the 
United  States;  authorizing  him,  at  the  same  time, 
if  he  shall  find  it  necessary,  to  suspend  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus,  and  to  remove  from  the  vicinity  of  the 
United  States  fortresses  all  dangerous  and  suspected 
persons." 
The  Virginia  Convention  which  passed  the  ordinance 
of  recession  (April  17)  having  appointed  a  com 
mittee  to  wait  upon  the  President  and  "  respectfully 
ask  him  to  communicate  to  this  Convention  the  policy 
which  the  Federal  Executive  intends  to  pursue  in 
regard  to  the  Confederate  States,"  Lincoln  in  reply
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     319 
thus  clearly  outlined  the  policy  and  purposes  of  the 
Government : 
In  answer  I  have  to  say,  that  having  at  the  begin 
ning  of  my  official  term  expressed  my  intended  policy 
as  plainly  as  I  was  able,  it  is  with  deep  regret  and 
mortification  I  now  learn  there  is  great  and  injurious 
uncertainty  in  the  public  mind  as  to  what  that  policy 
is  and  what  course  I  intend  to  pursue.  Not  having  as 
yet  seen  occasion  to  change,  it  is  now  my  purpose  to 
pursue  the  course  marked  out  in  the  Inaugural  Ad 
dress.  I  commend  a  careful  consideration  of  the  whole 
document  as  the  best  expression  I  can  give  to  my  pur 
poses.  As  I  then  and  therein  said,  I  now  repeat: 
"  The  power  confided  in  me  will  be  used  to  hold,  occupy, 
and  possess  property  and  places  belonging  to  the 
Government,  and  to  collect  the  duties  and  imposts; 
but  beyond  what  is  necessary  for  these  objects  there 
will  be  no  invasion,  no  using  of  force  against  or  among 
the  people  anywhere."  By  the  words  "  property  and 
places  belonging  to  the  Government,"  I  chiefly  allude 
to  the  military  posts  and  property  which  were  in  pos 
session  of  the  Government  when  it  came  into  my  hands. 
But  if,  as  now  appears  to  be  true,  in  pursuit  of  a 
purpose  to  drive  the  United  States  authority  from 
these  places,  an  unprovoked  assault  has  been  made 
upon  Fort  Sumter,  I  shall  hold  myself  at  liberty  to 
repossess,  if  I  can,  like  places  which  had  been  seized 
before  the  Government  was  devolved  upon  me ;  .  and 
in  any  event  I  shall,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  repel 
force  by  force.  In  case  it  proves  true  that  Fort 
Sumter  has  been  assaulted,  as  is  reported,  I  shall, 
perhaps,  cause  the  United  States  mails  to  be  withdrawn 
from  all  the  States  which  claim  to  have  seceded,  believ 
ing  that  the  commencement  of  actual  war  against  the 
Government  justifies  and  possibly  demands  it.  I 
scarcely  need  to  say  that  I  consider  the  military  posts 
and  property  situated  within  the  States  which  claim 
to  have  seceded,  as  yet  belonging  to  the  Government
320     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
of  the  United  States  as  much  as  they  did  before  the 
supposed  secession.  Whatever  else  I  may  do  for  the 
purpose,  I  shall  not  attempt  to  collect  the  duties  and 
imposts  by  any  armed  invasion  of  any  part  of  the 
country;  not  meaning  by  this,  however,  that  I  may 
not  land  a  force  deemed  necessary  to  relieve  a  fort 
upon  the  border  of  the  country.  From  the  fact  that  I 
have  quoted  a  part  of  the  Inaugural  Address,  it  must 
not  be  inferred  that  I  repudiate  any  other  part,  the 
whole  of  which  I  reaffirm,  except  so  far  as  what  I  now 
say  of  the  mails  may  be  regarded  as  a  modification. 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
In  the  early  period  of  Lincoln's  administration  he 
was  hopeful  that  many  serious  phases  of  the  threat 
ened  trouble  might  be  averted,  and  that  the  better 
judgment  of  the  citizens  of  the  South  might  prevail. 
"  For  more  than  a  month  after  his  inauguration," 
says  Secretary  Welles,  "  President  Lincoln  indulged 
the  hope,  I  may  say  felt  a  strong  confidence,  that 
Virginia  would  not  secede  but  would  adhere  to  the 
Union.  .  .  .  That  there  should  be  no  cause  of  offense, 
no  step  that  would  precipitate  or  justify  secession,  he 
enjoined  forbearance  from  all  unnecessary  exercise  of 
political  party  authority."  But  he  was  very  decided 
and  determined  as  to  what  his  duty  was  and  what  his 
action  would  be  if  the  secessionists  and  disunionists 
pressed  their  case.  He  said:  "The  disunionists  did 
not  want  me  to  take  the  oath  of  office.  I  have  taken 
it,  and  I  intend  to  administer  the  office  for  the  benefit 
of  the  people,  in  accordance  with  the  Constitution  and 
the  law."  He  was  especially  anxious  that  Kentucky 
should  not  be  plunged  into  a  rebellious  war,  as  he  saw 
that  this  State  would  be  of  the  utmost  importance 
to  the  Union  cause.  Soon  after  the  bombardment  of 
Fort  Sumter  a  conference  was  held  between  the  Presi 
dent  and  a  number  of  prominent  Kentuckians  then
EVERY-DAY   LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     321 
in  Washington,  at  which  Lincoln  expressed  himself 
in  the  most  earnest  words.  Kentucky,  he  declared, 
"  must  not  be  precipitated  into  secession.  She  is  the 
key  to  the  situation.  With  her  faithful  to  the  Union, 
the  discord  in  the  other  States  will  come  to  an  end. 
She  is  now  in  the  hands  of  those  who  do  not  represent 
the  people.  The  sentiment  of  her  State  officials  must 
be  counteracted.  We  must  arouse  the  young  men 
of  the  State  to  action  for  the  Union.  We  must  know 
what  men  in  Kentucky  have  the  confidence  of  the 
people,  and  who  can  be  relied  on  for  good  judgment, 
that  they  may  be  brought  to  the  support  of  the  Gov 
ernment  at  once."  He  paid  a  high  tribute  to  the 
patriotism  of  the  Southern  men  who  had  stood  up 
against  secession.  "  But,"  said  he,  "  they  are,  as  a 
rule,  beyond  the  meridian  of  life,  and  their  counsel  and 
example  do  not  operate  quickly,  if  at  all,  on  the  ex 
citable  nature  of  young  men  who  become  inflamed  by 
the  preparations  for  war,  and  who  in  such  a  war  as 
this  will  be,  if  it  goes  on,  are  apt  to  go  in  on  the  side 
that  gives  the  first  opportunity.  The  young  men 
must  not  be  permitted  to  drift  away  from  us.  I  know 
that  the  men  who  voted  against  me  in  Kentucky 
will  not  permit  this  Government  to  be  swept  away 
by  any  such  issue  as  that  framed  by  the  disunionists." 
As  Mr.  Markland,  a  prominent  Kentuckian,  relates, 
in  his  reminiscences  of  the  period :  "  Immediately  a 
campaign  for  the  Union  was  begun  in  Kentucky.  The 
State  could  not  be  dragooned  into  open  secession, 
therefore  the  neutrality  policy  was  adopted.  That 
policy  was  more  rigidly  observed  by  Mr.  Lincoln  than 
it  was  by  his  opponents,  but  he  was  not  misled  by  it. 
Judge  Joseph  Holt  made  eloquent  appeals  for  the 
Union  through  the  columns  of  the  press  and  from 
the  forum,  as  did  the  Speeds,  the  Goodloes,  and  many 
others  of  prominence.  Rousseau,  Jacobs,  Pound-
322     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
baker,  and  others,  stood  guard  in  the  Legislature,  and 
by  their  eloquence  stayed  the  tide  of  disunion  there. 
The  labors  of  Judge  Holt,  the  Speeds,  the  Goodloes, 
Cassius  M.  Clay,  and  their  followers,  had  brought  forth 
fruit  for  the  Union.  The  patriotic  men  in  the  Legis 
lature  had  done  their  work  well.  The  men  in  the  camps 
on  the  north  side  of  the  Ohio  river  moved  over  into 
Kentucky,  and  the  invasion  of  Confederates  which 
was  to  sweep  Kentucky  into  secession  was  at  an  end. 
Kentucky  was  saved  to  the  Union  by  the  wise  counsel 
and  pacific  policy  of  Abraham  Lincoln." 
A  special  session  of  Congress  convened  on  the  4th 
of  July,  in  obedience  to  the  summons  of  the  President 
in  his  proclamation  of  April  15.  The  following  day 
the  message  of  the  Executive  rehearsed  to  the  joint 
Houses  the  circumstances  which  had  rendered  their 
assembling  necessary.  It  portrayed  in  clear  and  suc 
cinct  words  the  situation  of  affairs,  the  aggressive  acts 
of  the  States  aiming  to  disrupt  the  Federal  Union, 
and  the  measures  adopted  by  the  administration  to 
frustrate  their  attempts.  The  assailants  of  the  Gov 
ernment,  said  the  President,  "  have  forced  upon  the 
country  the  distinct  issue,  '  immediate  dissolution  or 
blood.'  And  this  issue  embraces  more  than  the  fate  of 
these  United  States.  It  presents  to  the  whole  family 
of  man  the  question  whether  a  constitutional  Republic 
or  Democracy  —  a  Government  of  the  people  by  the 
same  people  —  can  or  cannot  maintain  its  territorial 
integrity  against  its  own  domestic  foes.  It  presents 
the  question  whether  discontented  individuals,  too  few 
in  numbers  to  control  administration  according  to 
organic  law  in  any  case,  can  always,  upon  the  pre 
tenses  made  in  this  case,  or  on  any  other  pretenses, 
or  arbitrarily,  without  any  pretense,  break  up  their 
Government,  and  thus  practically  put  an  end  to  free 
government  upon  the  earth.  It  forces  us  to  ask,
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     323 
( Is  there,  in  all  Republics,  this  inherent  and  fatal 
weakness?  Must  a  Government,  of  necessity,  be  too 
strong  for  the  liberties  of  its  own  people,  or  too  weak 
to  maintain  its  own  existence?  '  The  message  re 
quested  of  Congress  "  the  legal  means  for  making  this 
contest  a  short  and  decisive  one;  that  you  place  at 
the  control  of  the  Government,  for  the  work,  at  least 
four  hundred  thousand  men  and  $400,000,000.  That 
number  of  men  is  about  one-tenth  of  those  of  proper 
ages  within  the  regions  where,  apparently,  all  are  will 
ing  to  engage ;  and  the  sum  is  less  than  a  twenty-third 
part  of  the  money  value  owned  by  the  men  who  seem 
ready  to  devote  the  whole.  A  debt  of  $600,000,000 
now  is  a  less  sum  per  head  than  was  the  debt  of 
our  Revolution  when  we  came  out  of  that  struggle; 
and  the  money  value  in  the  country  now  bears  even  a 
greater  proportion  to  what  it  was  then  than  does  the 
population.  Surely  each  man  has  as  strong  a  motive 
now  to  preserve  our  liberties  as  each  had  then  to 
establish  them."  The  message  dwelt  upon  the  encour 
aging  facts  "  that  the  free  institutions  we  enjoy 
have  developed  the  powers  and  improved  the  condition 
of  our  whole  people  beyond  any  example  in  the  world. 
Of  this  we  now  have  a  striking  and  an  impressive 
illustration.  So  large  an  army  as  the  Government  has 
now  on  foot  was  never  before  known  without  a  soldier 
in  it  but  had  taken  his  place  there  of  his  own  free 
choice.  But  more  than  this;  there  are  many  single 
regiments  whose  members,  one  and  another,  possess 
full  practical  knowledge  of  all  the  arts,  sciences,  pro 
fessions,  and  whatever  else,  whether  useful  or  elegant, 
is  known  in  the  world;  and  there  is  scarcely  one  from 
which  there  could  not  be  selected  a  President,  a  Cabi 
net,  a  Congress,  and  perhaps  a  Court,  abundantly 
competent  to  administer  the  Government  itself." 
Finally,  and  eloquently,  the  message  demonstrated  the
324     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
significance  of  the  war  in  its  effect  upon  the  liberties 
and  prayers  of  all  mankind.  This  message  again 
illustrates  Lincoln's  singular  power  of  stating  clearly 
and  convincingly  the  nature  and  exigencies  of  the 
struggle  for  the  Preservation  of  the  Union.  Said  he  : 
This  is  essentially  a  people's  contest.  On  the  side 
of  the  Union  it  is  a  struggle  for  maintaining  in  the 
world  that  form  and  substance  of  government  whose 
leading  object  is  to  elevate  the  condition  of  men;  to 
lift  artificial  weights  from  all  shoulders ;  to  clear  the 
paths  of  laudable  pursuits  for  all;  to  afford  all  an 
unfettered  start  and  a  fair  chance  in  the  race  of  life. 
Yielding  to  partial  and  temporary  departures,  from 
necessity,  this  is  the  leading  object  of  the  Government 
for  whose  existence  we  contend.  I  am  most  happy 
to  believe  that  the  plain  people  understand  and  appre 
ciate  this.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  while,  in  this 
the  Government's  hour  of  trial,  large  numbers  of  those 
in  the  army  and  navy  who  have  been  favored  with  the 
offices  have  resigned  and  proved  false  to  the  hand 
which  had  pampered  them,  not  one  common  soldier 
or  common  sailor  is  known  to  have  deserted  his  flag. 
Great  honor  is  due  to  those  officers  who  remained  true, 
despite  the  example  of  their  treacherous  associates ; 
but  the  greatest  honor,  and  most  important  fact  of 
all,  is  the  unanimous  firmness  of  the  common  soldiers 
and  common  sailors.  To  the  last  man,  so  far  as 
known,  they  have  successfully  resisted  the  traitorous 
efforts  of  those  whose  commands  but  an  hour  before 
they  obeyed  as  absolute  law.  This  is  the  patriotic  in 
stinct  of  plain  people.  They  understand,  without  an 
argument,  that  destroying  the  Government  which  was 
made  by  Washington  means  no  good  to  them.  Our 
popular  Government  has  often  been  called  an  experi 
ment.  Two  points  in  it  our  people  have  already  set 
tled  —  the  successful  establishing  and  the  successful 
administering  of  it.  One  still  remains  —  its  successful
EVERY-DAY   LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     325 
maintenance  against  a  formidable  internal  attempt  to 
overthrow  it.  It  is  now  for  them  to  demonstrate  to 
the  world  that  those  who  can  fairly  carry  an  election 
can  also  suppress  a  rebellion;  that  ballots  are  the 
rightful  and  peaceful  successors  of  bullets ;  and  that 
when  ballots  have  fairly  and  constitutionally  decided, 
there  can  be  no  successful  appeal  back  to  bullets ;  that 
there  can  be  no  successful  appeal,  except  to  ballots 
themselves,  at  succeeding  elections.  Such  will  be  a 
great  lesson  of  peace:  teaching  men  that  what  they 
cannot  take  by  an  election,  neither  can  they  take  by  a 
war ;  teaching  all  the  folly  of  being  the  beginners  of 
a  war. 
Through  the  early  summer  of  1861  Washington 
was  alive  with  preparations  for  a  military  movement 
against  the  enemy  in  Virginia.  Troops  from  the  North 
were  constantly  arriving,  and  as  rapidly  as  possible 
were  assigned  to  different  organizations  and  drilled 
in  the  art  of  war.  "  Few  comparatively  know  or  can 
appreciate  the  actual  condition  of  things  and  the 
state  of  feeling  of  the  members  of  the  Administration 
in  those  days,"  says  Secretary  Welles.  "  Nearly  sixty 
years  of  peace  had  unfitted  us  for  any  war;  but 
the  most  terrible  of  all  wars,  a  civil  war,  was  upon 
us,  and  it  had  to  be  met.  Congress  had  adjourned 
without  making  any  provision  for  the  storm,  though 
aware  it  was  at  hand  and  soon  to  burst  upon  the 
country.  A  new  Administration,  its  members  scarcely 
acquainted  with  each  other,  and  differing  essentially 
in  the  past,  was  compelled  to  act,  promptly  and 
decisively."  The  burden  upon  the  President  began 
to  grow  tremendous;  but  he  did  not  shrink  or  falter. 
Upon  his  back  a  more  than  Atlas-load, 
The  burden  of  the  Commonwealth,  was  laid; 
He  stooped,  and  rose  up  to  it,  though  the  road 
Shot  suddenly  downwards,  not  a  whit  dismayed.
326     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
He  labored  incessantly  in  urging  forward  the  prepa 
rations  for  the  great  struggle  which,  however  he 
might  regret  it,  he  now  saw  was  inevitable.  He  was 
in  daily  conference  with  the  officers  of  the  army 
and  of  the  War  Department,  and  was  present  at  in 
numerable  reviews  and  parades  of  the  soldiers.  The 
4th  of  July  was  memorable  for  a  grand  review  of  all 
the  New  York  troops  in  and  about  the  city.  It  was 
a  brilliant  and  impressive  scene.  Says  a  spectator, 
Hon.  A.  G.  Riddle :  "  As  they  swept  past  —  twenty- 
five  thousand  boys  in  blue  —  their  muskets  flashing, 
bands  playing,  and  banners  waving,  I  stood  near  a 
distinguished  group  surrounding  the  President,  and 
noted  his  countenance  as  he  turned  to  the  massive 
moving  column.  All  about  him  were  excited,  confident, 
exultant.  He  stood  silent,  pale,  profoundly  sad,  as 
though  his  prophetic  soul  saw  what  was  to  follow. 
He  seemed  to  be  gazing  beyond  the  splendid  pageant 
before  him,  upon  things  hidden  from  other  eyes.  Was 
there  presaged  to  him  a  vision  of  that  grander  review 
of  our  victorious  armies  at  the  close  of  the  war,  which 
he  was  not  to  see?  " 
A  few  days  later,  all  the  troops  in  Washington 
crossed  the  Long  Bridge  and  marched,  gallant  and 
exultant,  straight  toward  the  enemy  in  Virginia.  The 
advance  of  our  army  resulted,  on  the  21st  of  July,  in 
the  shameful  disaster  at  Bull  Run.  The  North  was 
filled  with  surprise  and  dismay,  and  even  the  stoutest 
hearts  were  burdened  with  anxiety  for  the  future. 
Lincoln  at  first  shared  somewhat  in  the  general  de 
pression,  but  his  elastic  spirits  quickly  rallied  from 
the  shock.  Three  or  four  days  after  the  battle,  some 
gentlemen  who  had  been  on  the  field  called  upon  him. 
He  inquired  very  minutely  regarding  all  the  circum 
stances  of  the  affair,  and  after  listening  with  the  ut 
most  attention,  said,  with  a  touch  of  humor :  "  So  it 's
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     327 
your  notion  that  we  whipped  the  rebels,  and  then  ran 
away  from  them!  "  Not  long  after  this,  the  President 
made  a  personal  visit  to  the  army  in  Virginia.  General 
Sherman,  at  that  time  connected  with  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac,  says :  "  I  was  near  the  river-bank,  look 
ing  at  a  block-house  which  had  been  built  for  the 
defense  of  the  aqueduct,  when  I  saw  a  carriage  coming 
by  the  road  that  crossed  the  Potomac  river  at  George 
town  by  a  ferry.  I  thought  I  recognized  in  the  car 
riage  the  person  of  President  Lincoln.  I  hurried 
across  a  bend,  so  as  to  stand  by  the  roadside  as  the 
carriage  passed.  I  was  in  uniform,  with  a  sword 
on,  and  was  recognized  by  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Mr. 
Seward,  who  rode  side  by  side  in  an  open  hack.  I 
inquired  if  they  were  going  to  my  camp,  and  Mr. 
Lincoln  said :  '  Yes ;  we  heard  that  you  had  got 
over  the  big  scare,  and  we  thought  we  would  come  over 
and  see  the  boys.'  The  roads  had  been  much  changed 
and  were  rough.  I  asked  if  I  might  give  directions  to 
his  coachman;  he  promptly  invited  me  to  jump  in,  and 
to  tell  the  coachman  which  way  to  drive.  Intending 
to  begin  on  the  right  and  follow  round  to  the  left, 
I  turned  the  driver  into  a  side-road  which  led  up  a 
very  steep  hill,  and,  seeing  a  soldier,  called  to  him 
and  sent  him  up  hurriedly  to  announce  to  the  Colonel 
whose  camp  we  were  approaching  that  the  President 
was  coming.  As  we  slowly  ascended  the  hill,  I  dis 
covered  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  full  of  feeling,  and 
wanted  to  encourage  our  men.  I  asked  if  he  in 
tended  to  speak  to  them,  and  he  said  he  would  like  to. 
I  asked  him  then  to  please  discourage  all  cheering, 
noise,  or  any  sort  of  confusion;  that  we  had  had 
enough  of  it  before  Bull  Run  to  ruin  any  set  of  men, 
and  that  what  we  needed  were  cool,  thoughtful,  hard- 
fighting  soldiers  —  no  more  hurrahing,  no  more  hum 
bug.  He  took  my  remarks  in  the  most  perfect  good-
328     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
nature.  Before  we  had  reached  the  first  camp,  I 
heard  the  drum  beating  the  '  assembly,'  saw  the  men 
running  for  their  tents,  and  in  a  few  minutes  the 
regiment  was  in  line,  arms  presented,  and  then  brought 
to  an  '  order  '  and  '  parade  rest.'  Mr.  Lincoln  stood 
up  in  the  carriage,  and  made  one  of  the  neatest,  best, 
and  most  feeling  addresses  I  ever  listened  to,  referring 
to  our  late  disaster  at  Bull  Run,  the  high  duties  that 
still  devolved  on  us,  and  the  brighter  days  yet  to 
come.  At  one  or  two  points  the  soldiers  began  to 
cheer,  but  he  promptly  checked  them,  saying :  '  Don't 
cheer,  boys.  I  confess  I  rather  like  it  myself,  but 
Colonel  Sherman  here  says  that  it  is  not  military ; 
and  I  guess  we  had  better  defer  to  his  opinion.'  In 
winding  up,  he  explained  that,  as  President,  he  was 
commander-in-chief ;  that  he  was  resolved  that  the 
soldiers  should  have  everything  that  the  law  allowed; 
and  he  called  on  one  and  all  to  appeal  to  him  person 
ally  in  case  they  were  wronged.  The  effect  of  this 
speech  was  excellent.  We  passed  along  in  the  same 
manner  to  all  the  camps  of  my  brigade;  and  Mr. 
Lincoln  complimented  me  highly  for  the  order,  clean 
liness,  and  discipline  that  he  observed.  Indeed,  he 
and  Mr.  Seward  both  assured  me  that  it  was  the  first 
bright  moment  that  they  had  experienced  since  the 
battle." 
"  In  the  crowd  at  Fort  Corcoran,"  continues  Gen 
eral  Sherman,  "  I  saw  an  officer  with  whom  I  had 
had  a  little  difficulty  that  morning.  His  face  was 
pale  and  his  lips  were  compressed.  I  foresaw  a  scene, 
but  sat  on  the  front  seat  of  the  carriage  as  quiet 
as  a  lamb.  This  officer  forced  his  way  through  the 
crowd  to  the  carriage,  and  said :  '  Mr.  President,  I 
have  a  cause  of  grievance.  This  morning  I  went  to 
speak  to  Colonel  Sherman,  and  he  threatened  to  shoot 
me.'  Mr.  Lincoln,  who  was  still  standing,  said,
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     329 
'  Threatened  to  shoot  you?  '  '  Yes,  sir,  he  threatened 
to  shoot  me.'  Mr.  Lincoln  looked  at  him,  then  at 
me ;  and  stooping  his  tall,  spare  form  toward  the 
officer,  said  to  him  in  a  loud  stage-whisper,  easily 
heard  for  some  yards  around :  *  Well,  if  I  were  you, 
and  he  threatened  to  shoot,  /  would  not  trust  him,  for 
/  believe  he  would  do  it.'  The  officer  turned  about 
and  disappeared,  and  the  men  laughed  at  him.  Soon 
the  carriage  drove  on,  and  as  we  descended  the  hill  I 
explained  the  facts  to  the  President,  who  answered, 
'  Of  course  I  did  n't  know  anything  about  it,  but 
I  thought  you  knew  your  own  business  best.'  I  thanked 
him  for  his  confidence,  and  assured  him  that  what  he 
had  done  would  go  far  to  enable  me  to  maintain  good 
discipline ;  and  it  did." 
The  days  following  the  Bull  Run  disaster  were  full 
of  depression  and  discouragement,  but  Lincoln  bore 
up  bravely.  He  began  to  feel  the  terrible  realities  of 
his  position,  and  saw  himself  brought  face  to  face 
with  the  most  awful  responsibilities  that  ever  rested 
upon  human  shoulders.  A  disrupted  Union,  the  down 
fall  of  the  great  American  Republic,  so  long  pre 
dicted  by  envious  critics  of  our  institutions,  seemed 
about  to  be  accomplished.  At  the  best,  the  Union 
could  be  saved  only  by  the  shedding  of  seas  of  priceless 
blood  and  the  expenditure  of  untold  treasures.  And 
he  must  act,  control,  choose,  and  direct  the  measures 
of  the  Government  and  the  movements  of  its  vast 
armies.  And  what  if  all  should  fail?  What  if  the 
resources  of  the  Government  should  prove  inadequate, 
and  its  enemies  too  powerful  to  be  subdued  by  force? 
No  wonder  he  was  appalled  and  well-nigh  over 
whelmed  by  the  dark  prospect  before  him. 
Rev.  Robert  Collyer  tells  of  seeing  Lincoln  in  the 
summer  of  1861,  on  the  steps  of  the  White  House, 
"  answering  very  simply  and  kindly  to  the  marks  of
330     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
respect  some  soldiers  had  come  to  pay  him,  who 
stood  in  deep  ranks  on  the  grass,  that  had  been 
top-dressed  with  compost  enough  to  cover  the  whole 
District  of  Columbia,  as  the  chairman  of  the  com 
mittee  that  had  to  pass  the  account  told  me.  And 
once,  curiously,  I  saw  only  his  feet.  It  was  soon  after 
the  battle  of  Bull  Run,  when  some  say  that  we  ran, 
and  some  say  that  they  ran.  And  all  was  quiet  on  the 
Potomac;  but  the  nation  was  stamping  and  champing 
the  bit.  And  passing  the  White  House  one  day,  I 
saw  three  pairs  of  feet  on  the  sill  of  an  open  window; 
and  pausing  for  a  moment,  a  good-natured  fellow 
said,  *  That  's  the  Cabinet  a  sitting  and  them  big  feet  9s 
old  Abe's.9  So,  lecturing  in  Boston  not  long  after,  I 
said,  like  a  fool  as  I  was,  '  That 's  about  all  they  are 
good  for  in  Washington,  to  point  their  feet  out  o' 
window  and  talk,  but  go  nowhere  and  do  nothing.' 
When,  indeed,  the  good  President's  heart  was  even 
then  breaking  with  anxiety  and  trouble." 
"  One  day,"  says  Mr.  A.  G.  Riddle,  "  I  called  at  the 
White  House  to  present  a  distinguished  stranger,  who 
had  important  matters  to  bring  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  notice. 
It  was  evening  —  cold,  rainy,  and  cheerless.  The 
Executive  Mansion  was  gloomy  and  silent.  At  Mr. 
Lincoln's  door  we  were  told  by  the  attendant  to  enter. 
We  found  the  room  quite  dark,  and  seemingly  vacant. 
I  advanced  a  step  or  two,  to  determine  if  anyone  were 
present,  and  was  arrested  by  a  strange  apparition, 
at  first  not  distinguishable:  the  long,  seemingly  life 
less,  limbs  of  a  man,  as  if  thrown  upon  a  chair  and  left 
to  sprawl  in  unseemly  disorder.  A  step  further,  and 
the  fallen  head  disclosed  the  features  of  the  President. 
I  turned  back;  a  word  from  my  companion  reached 
the  drooping  figure,  and  a  sepulchral  voice  bade  us 
advance.  We  came  upon  a  man,  in  some  respects  the 
most  remarkable  of  any  time,  in  the  hour  of  his  pros-
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     331 
tration  and  weakness  —  in  the  depths  of  that  de 
pression  to  which  his  inherited  melancholy  at  times 
reduced  him,  now  perhaps  coming  to  overwhelm  him 
as  he  thought  of  the  calamities  of  his  country." 
An  old  and  intimate  friend  from  Springfield,  who 
visited  Lincoln  at  this  period,  found  the  door  of  his 
office  in  the  White  House  locked ;  but  going  through  a 
private  room  and  a  side  entrance,  he  found  the  Presi 
dent  lying  on  a  sofa,  evidently  greatly  disturbed  and 
much  excited,  manifestly  displeased  with  the  outlook. 
Jumping  up  from  his  reclining  position,  he  advanced, 
saying:  "You  know  better  than  any  man  living  that 
from  my  boyhood  up  my  ambition  was  to  be  Presi 
dent.  I  am  President  of  one  part  of  this  divided  coun 
try  at  least ;  but  look  at  me !  I  wish  I  had  never  been 
born !  I  've  a  white  elephant  on  my  hands,  one  hard 
to  manage.  With  a  fire  in  my  front  and  rear,  having 
to  contend  with  the  jealousies  of  the  military  com 
manders,  and  not  receiving  that  cordial  co-operation 
and  support  from  Congress  that  could  reasonably  be 
expected,  with  an  active  and  formidable  enemy  in  the 
field  threatening  the  very  life-blood  of  the  Govern 
ment,  my  position  is  anything  but  a  bed  of  roses." 
But  in  the  darkest  hours  of  the  nation's  peril,  Lin 
coln  never  wavered  in  his  purpose.  Anxious  and  care 
worn,  his  heart  bleeding  with  grief  for  the  losses 
of  our  brave*  soldiers,  and  harassed  by  the  grave 
duties  constantly  demanding  his  attention,  he  had  but 
one  purpose,  —  to  go  on  unfalteringly  and  unhesi 
tatingly  in  his  course  until  the  supremacy  of  the  Gov 
ernment  was  restored  in  every  portion  of  its  territory. 
He  wrote  in  a  private  letter :  "  I  expect  to  maintain 
this  contest  until  successful,  or  till  I  die,  or  am  con 
quered,  or  my  term  expires,  or  Congress  or  the  country 
forsake  me." 
Besides  his  invincible  will  and  courage,  Lincoln  had
332     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
one  important  resource  in  his  dark  hours,  an  ever- 
ready  relief  for  his  overcharged  emotions.  Byron  said 
that  he  sometimes  laughed  in  order  that  he  might  not 
weep.  Lincoln's  life-long  solace  was  his  love  of  story 
telling.  Hon.  Hugh  McCulloch,  afterward  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  relates  that  about  a  week  after  the 
battle  of  Bull  Run  he  called  at  the  White  House,  in 
company  with  a  few  friends,  and  was  amazed  when,  re 
ferring  to  something  which  had  been  said  by  one  of 
the  company  about  the  battle  that  was  so  disastrous 
to  the  Union  forces,  the  President  remarked,  in  his 
usual  quiet  manner,  "  That  reminds  me  of  a  story," 
which  he  told  in  a  manner  so  humorous  as  almost  to 
lead  his  listeners  to  believe  that  he  was  free  from 
care  and  apprehension.  Mr.  McCulloch  could  not 
then  understand  how  the  President  could  feel  like 
telling  a  story,  when  Washington  was  in  danger  of 
being  captured  and  the  whole  North  was  dismayed. 
He  learned  his  mistake  afterwards,  however,  and  per 
ceived  that  his  estimate  of  Lincoln  before  his  election 
was  well  grounded,  and  that  he  possessed  even  higher 
qualities  than  he  had  been  given  credit  for;  that  he 
was  "  a  man  of  sound  judgment,  great  singleness  and 
tenacity  of  purpose,  and  extraordinary  sagacity; 
that  story-telling  was  to  him  a  safety-valve,  and  that 
he  indulged  in  it,  not  only  for  the  pleasure  it  afforded 
him,  but  for  a  temporary  relief  from  oppressing  cares." 
It  is  related  that  on  the  morning  after  the  battle  at 
Fredericksburg,  Hon.  I.  N.  Arnold,  then  a  member  of 
Congress  from  Illinois,  called  on  the  President,  and 
to  his  amazement  found  him  engaged  in  reading  "  Arte- 
mus  Ward."  Making  no  reference  to  that  which  occu 
pied  the  universal  thought,  he  asked  Mr.  Arnold  to 
sit  down  while  he  read  to  him  Artemus'  description 
of  his  visit  to  the  Shakers.  Shocked  at  this  proposi 
tion,  Mr.  Arnold  said :  "  Mr.  President,  is  it  possible
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     333 
that  with  the  whole  land  bowed  in  sorrow  and  covered 
with  a  pall  in  the  presence  of  yesterday's  fearful  re 
verse,  you  can  indulge  in  such  levity?  "  Throwing 
down  the  book,  with  the  tears  streaming  down  his 
cheeks  and  his  huge  frame  quivering  with  emotion, 
Lincoln  answered :  "  Mr.  Arnold,  if  I  could  not  get 
momentary  respite  from  the  crushing  burden  I  am  con 
stantly  carrying,  my  heart  would  break !  " 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  said :  "  His  broad  good 
humor,  running  easily  into  jocular  talk,  in  which  he 
delighted,  and  in  which  he  excelled,  was  a  rich  gift 
to  this  wise  man.  It  enabled  him  to  keep  his  secret, 
to  meet  every  kind  of  man,  and  every  rank  in  society; 
to  take  off  the  edge  of  the  severest  decisions,  to  mask 
his  own  ,  purpose  and  sound  his  companion,  and  to 
catch,  with  true  instinct,  the  temper  of  every  com 
pany  he  addressed.  And,  more  than  all,  it  is  to  a 
man  of  severe  labor,  in  anxious  and  exhausting  crises, 
the  natural  restorative,  good  as  sleep,  and  is  the  pro 
tection  of  the  overdriven  brain  against  rancor  and 
insanity." 
Even  amidst  the  stern  realities  of  war,  Lincoln 
was  keenly  appreciative  of  anything  that  disclosed 
the  comic  or  grotesque  side  of  men  or  happenings, 
—  largely,  doubtless,  for  the  relief  afforded  him.  At 
the  beginning  of  Lee's  invasion  of  Pennsylvania,  in 
June,  1863,  when  the  Union  forces  under  Colonel  Mil- 
roy  were  driven  out  of  Harper's  Ferry  by  the  Con 
federates,  great  consternation  and  alarm  were  caused 
by  reports  that  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  had  been 
routed  and  was  retreating  before  Lee,  who  was  pressing 
forward  toward  Harrisburg,  the  capital  of  Pennsyl 
vania.  Mr.  Welles  records  in  his  Diary  (June  17, 
1863)  that  he  was  at  the  War  Department  with  the 
President  and  Secretary  Stanton,  when  "  a  messenger 
came  in  from  General  Schenck,  declaring  that  the
334     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
stragglers  and  baggage-trains  of  Milroy  had  run  away 
in  affright,  and  squads  of  them  on  different  parallel 
roads  had  alarmed  each  other,  and  each  fled  in  terror 
with  all  speed  to  Harrisburg.  This  alone  was  as 
serted  to  be  the  basis  of  the  great  panic  which  had 
alarmed  Pennsylvania  and  the  country.  The  Presi 
dent,"  continues  Mr.  Welles,  "  was  in  excellent  humor. 
He  said  this  flight  would  be  a  capital  joke  for  Orpheus 
C.  Kerr  -1  to  get  hold  of.  He  could  give  scope  to  his 
imagination  over  the  terror  of  broken  squads  of  panic- 
stricken  teamsters,  frightened  at  each  other  and 
alarming  all  Pennsylvania.  General  Meigs,  who  was 
present,  inquired  with  great  simplicity  who  this  person 
(Orpheus  C.  Kerr)  was.  '  Why,'  said  the  President, 
'have  you  not  read  those  papers?  They  are  in  two 
volumes ;  anyone  who  has  not  read  them  is  a  heathen.' 
He  said  he  had  enjoyed  them  greatly  —  except  when 
they  attempted  to  play  their  wit  on  him,  which  did 
not  strike  him  as  very  successful,  but  rather  dis 
gusted  him.  '  Now,  the  hits  that  are  given  to  you, 
Mr.  Welles,  or  to  Chase,'  he  said,  'I  can  enjoy;  but 
I  daresay  they  may  have  disgusted  you  while  I  was 
laughing  at  them.  So  vice  versa  as  regards  myself.' ' 
Hon.  Lawrence  Weldon  relates  that  on  one  occasion 
he  called  upon  the  President  to  inquire  as  to  the  prob 
able  outcome  of  a  conflict  between  the  civil  and  military 
authorities  for  the  possession  of  a  quantity  of  cotton 
in  a  certain  insurrectionary  district.  As  soon  as  the 
inquiry  had  been  made,  Lincoln's  face  began  lighting 
up,  and  he  said :  "  What  has  become  of  our  old  friend 
Bob  Lewis,  of  DeWitt  County?  Do  you  remember  a 
story  that  Bob  used  to  tell  us  about  his  going  to 
Missouri  to  look  up  some  Mormon  lands  that  belonged 
1  Orpheus  C.  Kerr  (Office  Seeker)  was  the  pseudonymn  of  Robert  H. 
Newell,  a  popular  humorist  of  the  war  period,  who  dealt  particularly 
with  the  comic  aspects  of  Washington  and  army  life.
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     335 
to  his  father?  You  know  that  when  Robert  became  of 
age  he  found  among  the  papers  of  his  father  a  number 
of  warrants  and  patents  for  lands  in  Northeast  Mis 
souri,  and  he  concluded  the  best  thing  he  could  do  was 
to  go  to  Missouri  and  investigate  the  condition  of 
things.  It  being  before  the  days  of  railroads,  he 
started  on  horseback,  with  a  pair  of  old-fashioned 
saddlebags.  When  he  arrived  where  he  supposed  his 
land  was  situated,  he  stopped,  hitched  his  horse,  and 
went  into  a  cabin  standing  close  by  the  roadside.  He 
found  the  proprietor,  a  lean,  lank,  leathery  looking 
man,  engaged  in  the  pioneer  business  of  making  bullets 
preparatory  to  a  hunt.  On  entering,  Mr.  Lewis  ob 
served  a  rifle  suspended  in  a  couple  of  buck-horns 
above  the  fire.  He  said  to  the  man,  '  I  am  looking  up 
some  lands  that  I  think  belong  to  my  father,'  and  in 
quired  of  the  man  in  what  section  he  lived.  Without 
having  ascertained  the  section,  Mr.  Lewis  proceeded  to 
exhibit  his  title  papers  in  evidence,  and,  having  es 
tablished  a  good  title,  as  he  thought,  said  to  the  man, 
'Now,  that  is  my  title.  What  is  yours?'  The  pio 
neer,  who  had  by  this  time  become  somewhat  interested 
in  the  proceedings,  pointed  his  long  finger  toward  the 
rifle.  Said  he,  'Young  man,  do  you  see  that  gun?' 
Mr.  Lewis  frankly  admitted  that  he  did.  '  Well,'  said 
he,  '  that  is  my  title,  and  if  you  don't  get  out  of  here 
pretty  d  d  quick  you  will  feel  the  force  of  it.'     Mr. 
Lewis  very  hurriedly  put  his  title  papers  in  his  saddle 
bags,  mounted  his  pony  and  galloped  down  the  road, 
and,  as  Bob  says,  the  old  pioneer  snapped  his  gun 
twice  at  him  before  he  could  turn  the  corner.  Lewis 
said  that  he  had  never  been  back  to  disturb  that  man's 
title  since.  '  Now,'  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  '  the  military 
authorities  have  the  same  title  against  the  civil  au 
thorities  that  closed  out  Bob's  Mormon  title  in  Mis 
souri.'  '  Judge  Weldon  says  that  after  this  anecdote
336     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
he  understood  what  would  be  the  policy  of  the  Gov 
ernment  in  the  matter  referred  to  as  well  as  though  a 
proclamation  had  been  issued. 
The  tedium  of  meetings  of  the  Cabinet  was  often 
relieved,  and  troublesome  matters  before  it  were 
illuminated,  by  some  apt  and  pithy  story.  Secretary 
Welles  tells  of  such  an  occasion  when  "  Seward  was 
embarrassed  about  the  Dominican  [sic}  question.  To 
move  either  way  threatened  difficulty.  On  one  side 
was  Spain,  on  the  other  side  the  negro.  The  Presi 
dent  remarked  that  the  dilemma  reminded  him  of  the 
interview  between  two  negroes,  one  of  whom  was  a 
preacher  endeavoring  to  admonish  and  enlighten  the 
other.  '  There  are,'  said  Josh  the  preacher,  *  two 
roads  for  you,  Joe.  Be  careful  which  you  take.  One 
ob  dem  leads  straight  to  hell,  de  odder  go  right  to 
damnation.'  Joe  opened  his  eyes  under  the  impres 
sive  eloquence  and  visions  of  an  awful  future,  and  ex 
claimed,  '  Josh,  take  which  road  you  please ;  I  go 
troo  de  wood.'  '  I  am  not  disposed  to  take  any  new 
trouble,'  said  the  President,  'just  at  this  time,  and 
shall  neither  go  for  Spain  nor  the  negro  in  this  matter, 
but  shall  take  to  the  woods.'  " 
It  is  related  that  Charles  Sumner,  who  was  a  very 
tall  man,  and  proud  of  his  height,  once  worried  the 
President  about  some  perplexing  matter,  when  Lincoln 
sought  to  change  the  subject  by  abruptly  challenging 
his  visitor  to  measure  backs.  "  Sumner,"  said  Mr. 
Lincoln,  "  declined  to  stand  up  with  me,  back  to  back, 
to  see  which  was  the  tallest  man,  and  made  a  fine  speech 
about  this  being  the  time  for  uniting  our  fronts  against 
the  enemy,  and  not  our  backs.  But  I  guess  he  was 
afraid  to  measure,  though  he  is  a  good  piece  of  a  man. 
I  have  never  had  much  to  do  with  Bishops  where  I 
live,  but,  do  you  know,  Sumner  is  my  idea  of  a  Bishop." 
A    good    story    of    President    Lincoln    and    General