EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     337 
Scott  is  reported  by  Major-General  Keyes,  who  at  the 
beginning  of  the  war  was  on  the  staff  of  General  Scott, 
then  commander-in-chief  of  the  armies  of  the  United 
States.  "  I  was  sent,"  says  General  Keyes,  "  by  my 
chief  to  the  President  with  a  message  that  referred 
to  a  military  subject,  and  that  led  to  a  discussion. 
Finding  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  observations  were  begin 
ning  to  tangle  my  arguments,  I  said,  '  That  is  the 
opinion  of  General  Scott,  and  you  know,  Mr.  Presi 
dent,  he  is  a  very  able  military  man.'  '  Well,'  said  the 
President,  '  if  he  is  as  able  a  military  man  as  he  is  un- 
able  as  a  politician,  I  give  up.'  This  was  said  with 
an  expression  of  the  eye,  which  he  turned  on  me,  that 
was  peculiar  to  him,  and  which  signified  a  great  deal. 
The  astounding  force  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  observation  was 
not  at  all  diminished  by  the  fact  that  I  had  long 
suspected  that  my  chief  lacked  something  which  is 
necessary  to  make  a  successful  politician." 
Among  the  numerous  delegations  which  thronged 
Washington  in  the  early  part  of  the  war  was  one 
from  New  York,  which  urged  very  strenuously  the 
sending  of  a  fleet  to  the  southern  cities  —  Charleston, 
Mobile,  and  Savannah  —  with  the  object  of  drawing 
off  the  rebel  army  from  Washington.  Lincoln  said 
the  object  reminded  him  of  the  case  of  a  girl  in  New 
Salem,  who  was  greatly  troubled  with  a  "  singing " 
in  her  head.  Various  remedies  were  suggested  by  the 
neighbors,  but  nothing  seemed  to  afford  any  relief. 
At  last  a  man  came  along  —  "a  common-sense  sort 
of  man,"  said  he,  inclining  his  head  towards  his  callers 
pleasantly,  — "  who  was  asked  to  prescribe  for  the 
difficulty.  After  due  inquiry  and  examination,  he  said 
the  cure  was  very  simple.  '  What  is  it?  '  was  the  ques 
tion.  '  Make  a  plaster  of  psalm-tunes,  and  apply  to 
her  feet,  and  draw  the  singing  down,9  was  the  re 
joinder."  Still  better  was  his  reply  to  another  dele-
338     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
gation  of  New  York  millionaires  who  waited  upon  him 
in  1862,  after  the  appearance  of  the  rebel  ram  "  Merri- 
mac,"  and  represented  to  him  that  they  were  very  un 
easy  about  the  unprotected  situation  of  their  city, 
which  was  exposed  to  attack  and  bombardment  by 
rebel  rams;  and  they  requested  him  to  detail  a  gun 
boat  to  defend  the  city.  The  gentlemen  were  fifty  in 
number,  very  dignified  and  respectable  in  appearance, 
and  stated  that  they  represented  in  their  own  right 
$100,000,000.  Lincoln  did  not  wish  to  offend  these 
gentlemen,  and  yet  he  intended  to  give  them  a  little 
lesson.  He  listened  with  great  attention,  and  seemed 
to  be  much  impressed  by  their  presence  and  their  state 
ments.  Then  he  replied,  very  deliberately :  "  Gentle 
men,  I  am  by  the  Constitution  commander-in-chief  of 
the  army  and  navy  of  the  United  States;  and,  as  a 
matter  of  law,  can  order  anything  done  that  is  prac 
ticable  to  be  done.  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  I  am  not 
in  command  of  the  gun-boats  or  ships  of  war;  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  I  do  not  know  exactly  where  they  are, 
but  presume  they  are  actively  engaged.  It  is  impossible 
for  me,  in  the  present  condition  of  things,  to  furnish 
you  a  gun-boat.  The  credit  of  the  Government  is  at 
a  very  low  ebb ;  greenbacks  are  not  worth  more  than 
forty  or  fifty  cents  on  the  dollar ;  and  in  this  condition 
of  things,  if  I  was  worth  half  as  much  as  you,  gentle 
men,  are  represented  to  be,  and  as  badly  scared  as 
you  seem  to  be,  I  would  build  a  gun-boat  and  give  it  to 
the  Government ."  A  gentleman  who  accompanied  the 
delegation  says  he  never  saw  one  hundred  millions 
sink  to  such  insignificant  proportions,  as  the  com 
mittee  recrossed  the  threshold  of  the  White  House, 
sadder  but  wiser  men. 
"Mr.  Lincoln  had  his  joke  and  his  'little  story' 
over  the  disruption  of  the  Democracy.  He  once  knew, 
he  said,  a  sound  churchman,  of  the  name  of  Brown,
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     339 
who  was  the  member  of  a  very  sober  and  pious  com 
mittee,  having  in  charge  the  erection  of  a  bridge  over  a 
dangerous  and  rapid  river.  Several  architects  had 
failed,  and  at  last  Brown  said  he  had  a  friend  named 
Jones  who  had  built  several  bridges,  and  could  un 
doubtedly  build  that  one.  So  Mr.  Jones  was  called 
in.  '  Can  you  build  this  bridge?  '  inquired  the  com 
mittee.  '  Yes,'  replied  Jones,  '  or  any  other.  I  could 
build  a  bridge  to  h — 1,  if  necessary.'  The  committee 
were  shocked,  and  Brown  felt  called  upon  to  defend  his 
friend.  '  I  know  Jones  so  well,'  said  he,  '  and  he  is  so 
honest  a  man,  and  so  good  an  architect,  that  if  he 
states  soberly  and  positively  that  he  can  build  a  bridge 
to  —  to  —  the  infernal  regions,  why,  I  believe  it ;  but 
I  feel  bound  to  say  that  I  have  my  doubts  about  the 
abutment  on  the  other  side.'  '  So,'  said  Mr.  Lincoln, 
'  when  politicians  told  me  that  the  Northern  and  South 
ern  wings  of  the  Democracy  could  be  harmonized,  why, 
I  believed  them,  of  course;  but  I  always  had  my  doubts 
about  the  abutment  on  the  other  side.1  ' 
A  delegation  once  called  on  Lincoln  to  ask  the  ap 
pointment  of  a  gentleman  as  commissioner  to  the  Sand 
wich  Islands.  They  presented  their  case  as  earnestly 
as  possible,  and,  besides  his  fitness  for  the  place,  they 
urged  that  he  was  in  bad  health  and  a  residence  in  that 
balmy  climate  would  be  of  great  benefit  to  him.  The 
President  closed  the  interview  with  the  good-humored 
remark :  "  Gentlemen,  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  there 
are  eight  other  applicants  for  that  place,  and  they 
are  all  sicker  than  your  man."
CHAPTER    XVII 
Lincoln's  Wise  Statesmanship  —  The  Mason  and  Slidell  Affair  —  Com 
plications  with  England  —  Lincoln's  "Little  Story"  on  the  Trent 
Affair — Building  of  the  "Monitor"  —Lincoln's  Part  in  the  En 
terprise  —  The  President's  First  Annual  Message  —  Discussion  of 
the  Labor  Question  —  A  President's  Reception  in  War  Time  —  A 
Great  Affliction  —  Death  in  the  White  House  —  Chapters  from  the 
Secret  Service  —  A  Morning  Call  on  the  President  —  Goldwin 
Smith's  Impressions  of  Lincoln  —  Other  Notable  Tributes. 
IN  
November  of  1861  occurred  one  of  the  most  im 
portant  and  perilous  episodes  of  the  war ;  one  whose 
full  significance  was  not  understood,  except  by  a  few 
cool  heads,  until  long  afterwards.  Two  influential 
Southern  politicians,  Mason  and  Slidell,  had  been  sent 
by  the  Confederate  Government  as  Commissioners  to 
Great  Britain  and  France,  to  try  to  secure  the  recog 
nition  of  the  Confederacy;  and  while  on  board  the 
British  steamer  "  Trent  "  they  were  taken  prisoners  by 
the  U.  S.  steamer  "  San  Jacinto,"  and  were  brought 
to  Washington.  Great  Britain  loudly  protested 
against  what  she  regarded  as  an  unwarrantable  seizure 
of  passengers  under  the  British  flag,  and  for  a  time 
excitement  ran  high  and  war  with  England  seemed 
almost  inevitable.  Fortunately  for  our  country,  the 
controversy  was  amicably  settled  by  the  surrender  of 
the  prisoners,  without  any  sacrifice  of  the  dignity  of 
the  Government  of  the  United  States.  As  stated  by 
"  Hosea  Biglow,"  — 
We  gave  the  critters  back,  John, 
Cos  Abraham  thought  't  was  right ; 
It  wa'nt  your  bullyin'  clack,  John, 
Provokin'  us  to  fight.
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
The  statesmanship  displayed  by  our  Government 
throughout  this  difficult  affair  was  of  the  highest 
order.  Credit  for  it  has  been  given  to  Mr.  Seward, 
the  Secretary  of  State,  by  whom  the  correspondence 
and  negotiations  were  conducted.  Few  men  could 
have  managed  these  details  better ;  yet  the  course  that 
was  so  happily  determined  on  was  undoubtedly  due  to 
the  good  sense  and  shrewd  wisdom  of  the  President. 
He  not  only  dictated  the  policy  to  be  followed  by 
Mr.  Seward  in  his  despatches  to  the  American  Minister 
in  London,  but  the  more  important  documents  were 
revised  and  materially  altered  by  Lincoln's  own  hand. 
His  management  of  the  Trent  affair  alone,  it  has  been 
said,  would  suffice  to  establish  his  reputation  as  the 
ablest  diplomatist  of  the  war.  Coming,  as  it  did,  at  a 
time  when  Lincoln  was  overwhelmed  with  the  burden  of 
home  affairs,  it  showed  the  surprising  resources  of  his 
character.  The  readiness  and  ability  with  which  he  met 
this  perilous  emergency,  in  a  field  in  which  he  had  had 
absolutely  no  experience  or  preparation,  was  equaled 
only  by  his  cool  courage  and  self-reliance  in  following 
a  course  radically  opposed  to  the  prevailing  public 
sentiment,  to  the  views  of  Congress,  and  to  the  advice 
of  his  own  Cabinet.  The  Secretary  of  the  Navy  had 
hastened  to  approve  officially  the  act  of  Captain 
Wilkes,  commander  of  the  "  San  Jacinto,"  and  Secre 
tary  Stanton  "  cheered  and  applauded  "  it.  Even  Mr. 
Seward,  cautious  and  conservative  diplomat  as  he  was, 
at  first  "  opposed  any  concession  or  surrender  of  the 
prisoners."  But  Lincoln  said  significantly,  "  One  war 
at  a  time."  Events  have  long  since  afforded  the  most 
ample  vindication  of  his  course  in  this  important 
matter.  He  avoided  a  foreign  war,  while  at  the  same 
time,  by  committing  Great  Britain  to  the  doctrine  of 
"  peace  between  neutrals,"  gained  a  substantial  diplo 
matic  victory  over  that  government.
342     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
An  excellent  account  of  the  circumstances  of  the 
Trent  affair  is  given  by  Benson  J.  Lossing,  the  author 
and  historian,  who  was  in  Washington  when  the  events 
occurred.  "  The  act  of  Captain  Wilkes,"  says  Mr. 
Lossing,  "  was  universally  applauded  by  all  loyal 
Americans,  and  the  land  was  filled  with  rejoicings  be 
cause  two  of  the  most  mischievous  men  among  the 
enemies  of  the  Government  were  in  custody.  For  the 
moment,  men  did  not  stop  to  consider  the  law  or  the 
expediency  involved  in  the  act.  Public  honors  were 
tendered  to  Captain  Wilkes,  and  resolutions  of  thanks 
were  passed  by  public  bodies.  The  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  wrote  him  a  congratulatory  letter  on  the  '  great 
public  services  '  he  had  rendered  in  '  capturing  the 
rebel  emissaries,  Mason  and  Slidell,'  and  assured  him 
that  his  conduct  had  '  the  emphatic  approval  of  the 
department.'  The  House  of  Representatives  tendered 
him  their  thanks  for  the  service  he  had  done.  -But 
there  was  one  thoughtful  man  in  the  nation,  in  whom 
was  vested  the  tremendous  executive  power  of  the 
Republic  at  that  time,  and  whose  vision  was  con 
stantly  endeavoring  to  explore  the  mysteries  of  the 
near  future,  who  held  calmer  and  wiser  thoughts  than 
most  men  at  that  critical  moment,  because  his  feelings 
were  kept  in  subjection  to  his  judgment  by  a  sense  of 
heavy  responsibility.  That  man  was  Abraham  Lin 
coln,  The  writer  was  in  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of 
War  when  the  telegraphic  despatch  announcing  the 
capture  of  Mason  and  Slidell  was  brought  in  and 
read.  He  can  never  forget  the  scene  that  ensued.  Led 
by  Secretary  Stanton,  who  was  followed  by  Governor 
Andrew  of  Massachusetts  and  others  who  were  pres 
ent,  cheer  after  cheer  was  heartily  given  by  the 
company.  A  little  later,  the  writer  was  favored  with 
a  brief  interview  with  the  President,  when  the  clear 
judgment  of  that  far-seeing  and  sagacious  statesman
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     343 
uttered  through  his  lips  the  words  which  formed  the 
suggestion  of,  and  the  keynote  to,  the  judicious  action 
of  the  Secretary  of  State  afterwards.  '  I  fear  the 
traitors  will  prove  to  be  white  elephants,'  said  Mr. 
Lincoln.  '  We  must  stick  to  American  principles  con 
cerning  the  rights  of  neutrals,'  he  continued.  '  We 
fought  Great  Britain  for  insisting,  by  theory  and  prac 
tise,  on  the  right  to  do  just  what  Captain  Wilkes  has 
just  done.  If  Great  Britain  shall  now  protest  against 
the  act,  and  demand  their  release,  we  must  give  them 
up,  apologize  for  the  act  as  a  violation  of  our  own 
doctrines,  and  thus  forever  bind  her  over  to  keep  the 
peace  in  relation  to  neutrals,  and  so  acknowledge  that 
she  has  been  wrong  for  sixty  years.'  Great  Britain  did 
protest  and  make  the  demand,  and  at  the  same  time 
made  preparations  for  war  against  the  United  States. 
On  the  same  day  that  Lord  John  Russell  sent  the  pro 
test  and  demand  to  Lord  Lyons,  the  British  Minister 
at  Washington,  Secretary  Seward  forwarded  a  des 
patch  to  Minister  Adams  in  London,  informing  him 
that  this  Government  disclaimed  the  act  of  Captain 
Wilkes,  and  giving  assurance  that  it  was  ready  to 
make  a  satisfactory  arrangement  of  all  difficulties  aris 
ing  out  of  the  unauthorized  act.  These  despatches 
passed  each  other  in  mid-ocean.  The  Government,  in 
opposition  to  popular  sentiment,  decided  at  once  to 
restore  Mason  and  Slidell  to  the  protection  of  the 
British  flag.  It  was  soon  afterwards  done,  war  be 
tween  the  two  nations  was  averted,  and,  in  the  lan 
guage  of  President  Lincoln,  the  British  Government 
was  '  forever  bound  to  keep  the  peace  in  relation  to 
neutrals.'  The  wise  statesmanship  exhibited  at  that 
critical  time  was  originated  by  Abraham  Lincoln." 
Lincoln  once  confessed  that  the  Trent  affair,  occur 
ring  as  it  did  at  a  very  critical  period  of  the  war,  had 
given  him  great  uneasiness.  When  asked  whether  it
344     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
was  not  a  great  trial  to  surrender  the  two  captured 
Commissioners,  he  said :  "  Yes,  that  was  a  pretty  bitter 
pill  to  swallow,  but  I  contented  myself  with  believing 
that  England's  triumph  in  the  matter  would  be  short 
lived,  and  that  after  ending  our  war  successfully  we 
could  if  we  wished  call  England  to  account  for  the 
embarrassments  she  had  inflicted  upon  us.  I  felt  a 
good  deal  like  the  sick  man  in  Illinois  who  was  told 
he  probably  had  n't  many  days  longer  to  live,  and  that 
he  ought  to  make  peace  with  any  enemies  he  might 
have.  He  said  the  man  he  hated  worst  of  all  was  a 
fellow  named  Brown,  in  the  next  village,  and  he  guessed 
he  had  better  begin  on  him.  So  Brown  was  sent  for, 
and  when  he  came  the  sick  man  began  to  say,  in  a 
voice  as  meek  as  Moses',  that  he  wanted  to  die  at  peace 
with  all  his  fellow-creatures,  and  hoped  he  and  Brown 
could  now  shake  hands  and  bury  all  their  enmity. 
The  scene  was  becoming  altogether  too  pathetic  for 
Brown,  who  had  to  get  out  his  handkerchief  and  wipe 
the  gathering  tears  from  his  eyes.  It  was  n't  long  be 
fore  he  melted  and  gave  his  hand  to  his  neighbor,  and 
they  had  a  regular  love-feast.  After  a  parting  that 
would  have  softened  the  heart  of  a  grindstone,  Brown 
had  about  reached  the  room  door,  when  the  sick  man 
rose  up  on  his  elbow  and  said,  '  But,  see  here,  Brown, 
if  I  should  happen  to  get  well,  mind  that  old  grudge 
stands!'  So  I  thought  if  this  nation  should  happen 
to  get  well,  we  might  want  that  old  grudge  against 
England  to  stand." 
Other  controversies  with  England  arose  during  the 
progress  of  the  war  —  over  the  fitting  out  of  Con 
federate  cruisers  at  English  ports  to  prey  upon  the 
commerce  of  the  United  States,  over  captured  mails, 
etc.  —  in  which  all  of  Lincoln's  sagacity  and  patience 
were  needed  to  avert  an  open  rupture  with  the  British 
government.  That  the  strain  was  severe  and  the
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     345 
danger  great  is  made  clear  by  an  entry  in  Mr.  Welles's 
Diary,  in  which  he  says :  "  We  are  in  no  condition  for 
a  foreign  war.  Torn  by  dissensions,  an  exhausting 
civil  war  on  our  hands,  we  have  a  gloomy  prospect, 
but  a  righteous  cause  that  will  ultimately  succeed. 
God  alone  knows  through  what  trials,  darkness,  and 
suffering  we  are  to  pass."  Again,  in  dealing  with  the 
French  invasion  of  Mexico,  Lincoln  —  as  Mr.  John 
Bigelow  (then  minister  to  France)  puts  it  —  "wisely 
limited  himself  to  a  firm  repetition  of  the  views  and 
principles  held  by  the  United  States  in  relation  to 
foreign  invasion,"  and  thereby  gained  a  diplomatic 
victory.  How  well  "  the  old  grudge  against  Eng 
land  "  stood  is  shown  by  the  substantial  damages  ob 
tained  from  her,  some  years .  after  the  war,  on  the 
claims  against  the  Alabama  and  other  privateers,  the 
foundations  of  which  had  been  wisely  laid  by  President 
Lincoln. 
In  the  autumn  of  1861  was  originated  the  plan  of 
a  new  naval  vessel,  which  became  the  "  Monitor  "  — 
the  forerunner  of  the  modern  iron-clad,  and  the 
formidable  little  craft  that  beat  back  the  "  Merrimac  " 
ram  at  Hampton  Roads,  March  9,  1862,  saved  the 
Federal  Navy,  and  revolutionized  naval  architecture. 
The  interesting  story  of  the  project,  and  of  Lincoln's 
relation  to  it,  is  thus  told :  "  The  invention  belongs 
to  Captain  John  Ericsson,  a  man  of  marvelous  ability 
and  most  fertile  brain ;  but  the  creation  of  the  '  Moni 
tor  '  belongs  to  two  distinguished  iron-masters  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  viz.:  the  Hon.  John  F.  Winslow 
and  his  partner  in  business,  the  Hon.  John  A.  Gris- 
wold.  These  two  gentlemen  were  in  Washington  in  the 
autumn  of  1861,  for  the  adjustment  of  some  claims 
against  the  Government  for  iron  plating  furnished  by 
them  for  the  war-ship  '  Galena.'  There,  through  Mr. 
C.  S.  Bushnell,  the  agent  of  Captain  Ericsson,  they
346     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
learned  that  the  plans  and  specifications  for  a  naval 
machine,  or  a  floating  iron  battery,  presented  by  Cap 
tain  Ericsson,  found  no  favor  with  the  special  board 
appointed  by  Congress  in  1861  to  examine  and  report 
upon  the  subject  of  iron-clad  ships  of  war.  Ericsson 
and  his  agent,  Mr.  Bushnell,  were  thoroughly  dis 
heartened  and  demoralized  at  this  failure  to  interest 
the  Grbvernment  in  their  plans.  The  papers  were 
placed  in  the  hands  of  Messrs.  Winslow  and  Griswold, 
with  the  earnest  request  that  they  would  examine  them, 
and,  if  they  thought  well  of  them,  use  their  influence 
with  the  Government  for  their  favorable  consideration. 
Mr.  Winslow  carefully  read  the  papers  and  became 
satisfied  that  Ericsson's  plan  was  both  feasible  and 
desirable.  After  conference  with  his  friend  and  part 
ner,  Mr.  Griswold,  it  was  determined  to  take  the  whole 
matter  to  President  Lincoln.  Accordingly,  an  inter 
view  was  arranged  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  to  whom  the  plans 
of  Captain  Ericsson  were  presented,  with  all  the  unc 
tion  and  enthusiasm  of  an  honest  and  mastering  con 
viction,  by  Mr.  Winslow  and  Mr.  Griswold,  who  had 
now  become  thoroughly  interested  in  the  undertaking. 
The  President  listened  with  attention  and  growing  in 
terest.  When  they  were  done,  Mr.  Lincoln  said, 
'  Gentlemen,  why  do  you  bring  this  matter  to  me? 
Why  not  take  it  to  the  Department  having  these  things 
in  charge ?  '  'It  has  been  taken  already  to  the  Depart 
ment,  and  there  met  with  a  repulse,  and  we  come  now 
to  you  with  it,  Mr.  President,  to  secure  your  influence. 
We  are  here  not  simply  as  business  men,  but  as  lovers 
of  our  country,  and  we  believe  most  thoroughly  that 
here  is  something  upon  which  we  can  enter  that  will  be 
of  vast  benefit  to  the  Republic,'  was  the  answer.  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  roused  by  the  terrible  earnestness  of  Mr. 
Winslow  and  his  friend  Griswold,  and  said,  in  his  in 
imitable  manner,  '  Well,  I  don't  know  much  about
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     347 
ships,  though  I  once  contrived  a  canal-boat  —  the 
model  of  which  is  down  in  the  Patent  Office  —  the 
great  merit  of  which  was  that  it  could  run  where  there 
was  no  water.  But  I  think  there  is  something  in  this 
plan  of  Ericsson's.  I  '11  tell  you  what  I  will  do.  I 
will  meet  you  to-morrow  at  ten  o'clock,  at  the  office  of 
Commodore  Smith,  and  we  will  talk  it  all  over.'  The 
next  morning  the  meeting  took  place  according  to  the 
appointment.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  present.  The  Secre 
tary  of  the  Navy,  with  many  of  the  influential  men  of 
the  Navy  Department,  also  were  there.  The  office 
where  they  met  was  rude  in  its  belongings.  Mr.  Lin 
coln  sat  upon  a  rough  box.  Mr.  Winslow,  without 
any  knowledge  of  naval  affairs  other  than  that  which 
general  reading  would  give,  entered  upon  his  task  with 
considerable  trepidation,  but  his  whole  heart  was  in 
it,  and  his  showing  was  so  earnest,  practical,  and 
patriotic,  that  a  profound  impression  was  made. 
4  Well,'  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  after  Mr.  Winslow  had 
finished,  '  well,  Commodore  Smith,  what  do  you  think 
of  it  ?  '  The  Commodore  made  some  general  and  non 
committal  reply,  whereupon*  the  President,  rising  from 
the  box,  added,  *  Well,  I  think  there  is  something  in 
it.  Good  morning,  gentlemen,'  and  went  out.  From 
this  interview  grew  a  Government  contract  with  Messrs. 
Winslow  and  Griswold  for  the  construction  of  the 
4  Monitor,'  the  vessel  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the 
Government  within  a  hundred  days  at  a  cost  of 
$275,000.  The  work  was  pushed  with  all  diligence 
till  the  30th  of  January,  1862,  when  the  ship  was 
launched  at  Greenpoint,  one  hundred  and  one  days 
from  the  execution  of  the  contract,  thus  making  the 
work  probably  the  most  expeditious  of  any  recorded 
in  the  annals  of  mechanical  engineering." 
At  the  assembling  of  Congress  in  December,  1861, 
Lincoln  presented  his  first  Annual  Message.     Among
348     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
its  most  noteworthy  passages  was  that  which  touched 
upon  the  relations  between  labor  and  capital  —  a  sub 
ject  so  prominent  in  our  later  day.  It  was  alluded 
to  in  its  connection  with  the  evident  tendency  of  the 
Southern  Confederacy  to  discriminate  in  its  legislation 
in  favor  of  the  moneyed  class  and  against  the  laboring 
people.  On  this  point  the  President  said: 
In  my  present  position,  I  could  scarcely  be  justified 
were  I  to  omit  raising  a  warning  voice  against  this 
approach  of  returning  despotism.  It  is  not  needed 
nor  fitting  here,  that  a  general  argument  should  be 
made  in  favor  of  popular  institutions ;  but  there  is  one 
point,  with  its  connections,  not  so  hackneyed  as  most 
others,  to  which  I  ask  a  brief  attention.  It  is  the 
effort  to  place  capital  on  an  equal  footing  with,  if 
not  above,  labor,  in  the  structure  of  government.  It  is 
assumed  that  labor  is  available  only  in  connection  with 
capital ;  that  nobody  labors  unless  somebody  else, 
owning  capital,  somehow,  by  the  use  of  it,  induces  him 
to  labor.  This  assumed,  it  is  next  considered  whether 
it  is  best  that  capital  shall  hire  laborers,  and  thus 
induce  them  to  work  by  their  own  consent,  or  buy 
them,  and  drive  them  to  it  without  their  consent. 
Having  proceeded  so  far,  it  is  naturally  concluded 
that  all  laborers  are  either  hired  laborers  or  what  we 
call  slaves.  And  further,  it  is  assumed  that  whoever 
is  once  a  hired  laborer  is  fixed  in  that  condition  for 
life.  Now,  there  is  no  such  relation  between  capital 
and  labor  as  assumed ;  nor  is  there  any  such  thing 
as  a  free  man  being  fixed  for  life  in  the  condition  of 
a  hired  laborer.  Both  these  assumptions  are  false,  and 
all  inferences  from  them  are  groundless.  Labor  is 
prior  to  and  independent  of  capital.  Capital  is  only 
the  fruit  of  labor,  and  could  never  have  existed  if  labor 
had  not  first  existed.  Labor  is  the  superior  of  capital, 
and  deserves  much  the  higher  consideration.  Capital 
has  its  rights,  which  are  as  worthy  of  protection  as
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     349 
any  other  rights.  Nor  is  it  denied  that  there  is,  and 
probably  always  will  be,  a  relation  between  labor  and 
capital,  producing  mutual  benefits.  The  error  is  in 
assuming  that  the  whole  labor  of  community  exists 
within  that  relation.  A  few  men  own  capital,  and 
those  few  avoid  labor  themselves,  and,  with  their  capi 
tal,  hire  or  buy  another  few  to  labor  for  them.  A 
large  majority  belong  to  neither  class  —  neither  work 
for  others,  nor  have  others  working  for  them.  In 
most  of  the  Southern  States,  a  majority  of  the  whole 
people  of  all  colors  are  neither  slaves  nor  masters ; 
while  in  the  North,  a  large  majority  are  neither  hirers 
nor  hired.  Men,  with  their  families  —  wives,  sons,  and 
daughters  —  work  for  themselves,  on  their  farms,  in 
their  houses,  and  in  their  shops,  taking  the  whole  pro 
duct  to  themselves,  and  asking  no  favors  of  capital 
on  the  one  hand,  nor  of  hired  laborers  or  slaves  on  the 
other.  It  is  not  forgotten  that  a  considerable  number 
of  persons  mingle  their  own  labor  with  capital  —  that 
is,  they  labor  with  their  own  hands,  and  also  buy  or 
hire  others  to  labor  for  them ;  but  this  is  only  a 
mixed,  not  a  distinct  class.  No  principle  stated  is  dis 
turbed  by  the  existence  of  this  mixed  class.  Again,  as 
has  already  been  said,  there  is  not,  of  necessity,  any 
such  thing  as  the  free  hired  laborer  being  fixed  to  that 
condition  for  life.  Many  independent  men  everywhere 
in  these  States,  a  few  years  back  in  their  lives,  were 
hired  laborers.  The  prudent,  penniless  beginner  in 
the  world  labors  for  wages  awhile,  saves  a  surplus 
with  which  to  buy  tools  or  land  for  himself ;  then  labors 
on  his  own  account  another  while,  and  at  length  hires 
another  new  beginner  to  help  him.  This  is  the  just 
and  generous  and  prosperous  system,  which  opens  the 
way  to  all,  gives  hope  to  all,  and  consequent  energy 
and  progress  and  improvement  of  condition  to  all. 
No  men  living  are  more  worthy  to  be  trusted  than 
those  who  toil  up  from  poverty  —  none  less  inclined  to 
take,  or  touch,  aught  which  they  have  not  honestly 
earned.  Let  them  beware  of  surrendering  a  political
350     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
power  which  they  already  possess,  and  which,  if  sur 
rendered, 'will  surely  be  used  to  close  the  door  of  ad 
vancement  against  such  as  they,  and  to  fix  new  disa 
bilities  and  burdens  upon  them  till  all  of  liberty  shall 
be  lost. 
The  struggle  of  to-day  is  not  altogether  for  to-day 
—  it  is  for  a  vast  future  also.     With  a  reliance  on 
Providence,  all  the  more  firm  and  earnest,  let  us  pro 
ceed    in   the   great    task   which   events   have    devolved 
upon  us. 
The  reception  given  at  the  White  House  on  New 
Year's  day,  1862,  was  a  brilliant  and  memorable  af 
fair.  It  was  attended  by  distinguished  army  officers, 
prominent  men  from  civil  life,  and  the  leading  ladies 
of  Washington  society.  "  Army  uniforms  prepon 
derated  over  black  dress  coats,  and  the  young  Ger 
mans  of  Blenker's  division  were  gorgeously  arrayed  in 
tunics  embroidered  with  gold  on  the  collars  and  cuffs, 
sword-belts  of  gold  lace,  high  boots,  and  jingling 
spurs."  It  was  such  a  scene  as  that  before  the  battle 
of  Waterloo,  when  the 
.  .  .  capital  had  gathered  then 
Her  beauty  and  her  chivalry,  and  bright 
The  lamps  shone  o'er  fair  women  and  brave  men ; 
A  thousand  hearts  beat  happily ;   and  when 
Music  arose,  with  its  voluptuous  swell, 
Soft  eyes  looked  love  to  eyes  that  spake  again, 
And  all  went  merry  as  a  marriage  bell. 
How  many  of  these  brave  men  were  destined  never  to 
see  another  New  Year's  day ;  and  how  many  of  those 
soft  eyes  would  soon  be  dimmed  with  tears!  Some 
thing  of  this  feeling  must  have  come  over  the  sad  soul 
of  Lincoln.  An  eye-witness  says  that  he  "  looked  care 
worn  and  thoughtful,  if  not  anxious ;  yet  he  had  a 
pleasant  word  for  all."
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     351 
Early  in  1862  an  event  occurred  which  added  to 
the  sorrow  that  seemed  to  enshroud  the  life  of  Lincoln, 
and  afforded  a  glimpse  into  the  depths  of  his  tender 
and  sorrowful  nature.  It  was  the  death  of  his  son 
Willie,  a  bright  and  promising  boy,  to  whom  his  father 
was  devotedly  attached.  "  This,"  says  Dr.  J.  G. 
Holland,  "  was  a  new  burden ;  and  the  visitation  which, 
in  his  firm  faith  in  Providence,  he  regarded  as  provi 
dential,  was  also  inexplicable.  Why  should  he,  with 
so  many  burdens  upon  him,  and  with  such  necessity 
for  solace  in  his  home  and  his  affections,  be  brought 
into  so  tender  a  trial?  It  was  to  him  a  trial  of  faith, 
indeed.  A  Christian  lady  of  Massachusetts,  who  was 
officiating  as  nurse  in  one  of  the  hospitals,  came  in  to 
attend  the  sick  children.  She  reports  that  Mr.  Lin 
coln  watched  with  her  about  the  bedside  of  the  sick 
ones,  and  that  he  often  walked  the  room,  saying  sadly: 
'  This  is  the  hardest  trial  of  my  life.  Why  is  it? 
Why  is  it?  '  In  the  course  of  conversations  with  her, 
he  questioned  her  concerning  her  situation.  She  told 
him  she  was  a  widow,  and  that  her  husband  and  two 
children  were  in  heaven;  and  added  that  she  saw  the 
hand  of  God  in  it  all,  and  that  she  had  never  loved 
Him  so  much  before  as  she  had  since  her  affliction. 
4  How  is  that  brought  about?  '  inquired  Mr.  Lincoln. 
6  Simply  by  trusting  in  God,  and  feeling  that  He  does 
all  things  well,'  she  replied.  '  Did  you  submit  fully 
under  the  first  loss?  '  he  asked.  '  No,'  she  answered, 
4  not  wholly ;  but  as  blow  came  upon  blow,  and  all 
were  taken,  I  could  and  did  submit,  and  was  very 
happy.'  He  responded,  '  I  am  glad  to  hear  you  say 
that.  Your  experience  will  help  me  to  bear  my  afflic 
tions.'  On  being  assured  that  many  Christians  were 
praying  for  him  on  the  morning  of  the  funeral,  he 
wiped  away  the  tears  that  sprang  in  his  eyes,  and  said, 
' 1  am  glad  to  hear  that.  I  want  them  to  pray  for  me.
352     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
I  need  their  prayers.'  As  he  was  going  out  to  the 
burial,  the  good  lady  expressed  her  sympathy  with  him. 
He  thanked  her  gently,  and  said,  '  I  will  try  to  go  to 
God  with  my  sorrows.'  A  few  days  afterward  she 
asked  him  if  he  could  trust  God.  He  replied,  '  I  think 
I  can.  I  will  try.  I  wish  I  had  that  childlike  faith 
you  speak  of,  and  I  trust  He  will  give  it  to  me.'  And 
then  he  spoke  of  his  mother,  whom  so  many  years 
before  he  had  committed  to  the  dust  among  the  wilds 
of  Indiana.  In  this  hour  of  his  great  trial,  the  memory 
of  her  who  had  held  him  upon  her  bosom  and  soothed 
his  childish  griefs  came  back  to  him  with  tenderest 
recollections.  '  I  remember  her  prayers,'  said  he,  '  and 
they  have  always  followed  me.  They  have  clung  to  me 
all  my  life.'  " 
An  interesting  passage  in  the  secret  history  of  the 
war  at  this  period  is  narrated  by  one  of  the  chief 
actors,  Mr.  A.  M.  Ross,  a  distinguished  ornithologist 
of  Canada,  whose  contribution  embodies  also  so  many 
interesting  details  of  Lincoln's  daily  life  that  it  seems 
worth  giving  rather  fully.  A  few  months  after  the 
inauguration  of  President  Lincoln,  Mr.  Ross  received  a 
letter  from  the  Hon.  Charles  Sumner,  requesting  him 
to  come  to  Washington  at  his  earliest  convenience. 
"  The  day  after  my  arrival  in  Washington,"  says  Mr. 
Ross,  "  I  was  introduced  to  the  President.  Mr.  Lin 
coln  received  me  very  cordially,  and  invited  me  to 
dine  with  him.  After  dinner  he  led  me  to  a  window, 
distant  from  the  rest  of  the  party,  and  said :  '  Mr. 
Sumner  sent  for  you  at  my  request;  we  need  a  confi 
dential  person  in  Canada  to  look  after  our  interests, 
and  keep  us  posted  as  to  the  schemes  of  the  Con 
federates  in  Canada.  You  have  been  strongly  recom 
mended  to  me  for  the  position.  Your  mission  shall  be 
as  confidential  as  you  please;  no  one  here  but  your 
friend  Mr.  Sumner  and  myself  shall  have  any  knowl-
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     353 
edge  of  your  position.  Think  it  over  tonight,  and  if 
you  can  accept  the  mission  come  up  and  see  me  at 
nine  o'clock  tomorrow  morning.'  When  I  took  my 
leave  of  him,  he  said,  '  I  hope  you  will  decide  to  serve 
us.'  The  position  thus  offered  was  one  not  suited  to 
my  tastes,  but,  as  Mr.  Lincoln  appeared  very  desirous 
that  I  should  accept  it,  I  concluded  to  lay  aside  my 
prejudices  and  accept  the  responsibilities  of  the  mis 
sion.  I  was  also  persuaded  to  this  conclusion  by  the 
wishes  of  my  friend,  Mr.  Sumner. 
"  At  nine  o'clock  next  morning,  I  waited  upon  the 
President,  and  announced  my  decision.  He  grasped 
my  hand  in  a  hearty  manner,  and  said :  '  Thank  you, 
thank  you ;  I  am  glad  of  it.  You  must  help  us  to 
circumvent  the  machinations  of  the  rebel  agents  in 
Canada.  There  is  no  doubt  they  will  use  your  coun 
try  as  a  communicating  link  with  Europe,  and  also 
with  their  friends  in  New  York.  It  is  quite  possible, 
also,  that  they  may  make  Canada  a  base  from  which 
to  harass  and  annoy  our  people  along  the  frontier.' 
"  After  a  lengthy  conversation  relative  to  private 
matters  connected  with  my  mission,  I  rose  to  leave, 
when  he  said,  '  I  will  walk  down  to  Willard's  with  you ; 
the  hotel  is  on  my  way  to  the  Capitol,  where  I  have 
an  engagement  at  noon.'  Before  we  reached  the  hotel 
a  man  came  up  to  the  President  and  thrust  a  letter 
into  his  hand,  at  the  same  time  applying  for  some 
office  in  Wisconsin.  I  saw  that  the  President  was 
offended  at  the  rudeness,  for  he  passed  the  letter  back 
without  looking  at  it,  saying,  *  No,  sir !  I  am  not 
going  to  open  shop  here.'  This  was  said  in  a  most 
emphatic  manner,  but  accompanied  by  a  comical  ges 
ture  which  caused  the  rejected  applicant  to  smile.  As 
we  continued  our  walk,  the  President  spoke  of  the 
annoyances  incident  to  his  position,  saying:  'These 
office-seekers  are  a  curse  to  the  country;  no  sooner
354     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
was  my  election  certain,  than  I  became  the  prey  of 
hundreds  of  hungry,  persistent  applicants  for  office, 
whose  highest  ambition  is  to  feed  at  the  Government 
crib.'  When  he  bade  me  good-bye,  he  said,  '  Let  me 
hear  from  you  once  a  week  at  least.'  As  he  turned  to 
leave  me,  a  young  army  officer  stopped  him  and  made 
some  request,  to  which  the  President  replied  with  a 
good  deal  of  humor,  '  No,  I  can't  do  that ;  I  must  not 
interfere;  they  would  scratch  my  eyes  out  if  I  did. 
You  must  go  to  the  proper  department.' 
"  Some  time  later,"  says  Mr.  Ross,  "  I  again  visited 
Washington.  On  my  arrival  there  (about  midnight) 
I  went  direct  to  the  Executive  Mansion,  and  sent  my 
card  to  the  President,  who  had  retired.  In  a  few 
minutes  the  porter  returned  and  requested  me  to  ac 
company  him  to  the  President's  office,  where  Mr.  Lin 
coln  would  shortly  join  me.  The  room  into  which  I 
was  ushered  was  the  same  in  which  I  had  spent  several 
hours  with  the  President  on  the  occasion  of  my  first 
interview  with  him.  Scattered  about  the  floor  and 
lying  open  on  the  table  were  several  military  maps  and 
documents,  indicating  recent  use.  In  a  few  minutes 
the  President  came  in  and  welcomed  me  in  a  most 
friendly  manner;  I  expressed  my  regret  at  disturb 
ing  him  at  such  an  hour.  He  replied  in  a  good-hu 
mored  manner,  saying,  '  No,  no !  You  did  right ;  you 
may  waken  me  up  whenever  you  please.  I  have  slept 
with  one  eye  open  ever  since  I  came  to  Washington; 
I  never  close  both,  except  when  an  office-seeker  is  look 
ing  for  me.'  I  then  laid  before  the  President  the  '  rebel 
mail.'  He  carefully  examined  the  address  of  each 
letter,  making  occasional  remarks.  At  length  he  found 
one  addressed  to  Franklin  Pierce,  ex-President  of  the 
United  States,  then  residing  in  New  Hampshire;  and 
another  to  ex- Attorney-General  Gushing,  a  resident  of 
Massachusetts.  He  appeared  much  surprised,  and  re-
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     355 
marked  with  a  sigh,  but  without  the  slightest  tone  of 
asperity,  '  I  will  have  these  letters  enclosed  in  official 
envelopes,  and  sent  to  these  parties.'  When  he  had 
finished  examining  the  addresses,  he  tied  up  all  those 
addressed  to  private  individuals,  saying,  '  I  won't 
bother  with  them;  but  these  look  like  official  letters; 
I  guess  I  '11  go  through  them  now.'  He  then  opened 
them,  and  read  their  contents,  slowly  and  carefully. 
While  he  was  thus  occupied,  I  had  an  excellent  oppor 
tunity  of  studying  this  extraordinary  man.  A  marked 
change  had  taken  place  in  his  countenance  since  my 
first  interview  with  him.  He  looked  much  older,  and 
bore  traces  of  having  passed  through  months  of  pain 
ful  anxiety  and  trouble.  There  was  a  sad  and  serious 
look  in  his  eyes  that  spoke  louder  than  words  of  the 
disappointments,  trials,  and  discouragements  he  had 
encountered  since  the  war  began.  The  wrinkles  about 
the  eyes  and  forehead  were  deeper;  the  lips  were 
firmer,  but  indicative  of  kindness  and  forbearance. 
The  great  struggle  had  brought  out  the  hidden  riches 
of  his  noble  nature,  and  developed  virtues  and  capa 
cities  which  surprised  his  oldest  and  most  intimate 
friends.  He  was  simple,  but  astute;  he  possessed  the 
rare  faculty  of  seeing  things  just  as  they  are.  He  was 
a  just,  charitable,  and  honest  man. 
"  When  Mr.  Lincoln  finished  reading  the  letters,  I 
rose  to  go,  saying  that  I  would  go  to  Willard's,  and 
have  a  rest.  '  No,  no,'  said  the  President,  '  it  is  now 
three  o'clock;  you  shall  stay  with  me  while  you  are  in 
town ;  I  '11  find  you  a  bed  ' ;  and  leading  the  way,  he 
took  me  into  a  bedroom,  saying,  '  Take  a  good  sleep ; 
you  shall  not  be  disturbed.'  Bidding  me  '  good  night,' 
he  left  the  room  to  go  back  and  pore  over  the  rebel 
letters  until  daylight,  as  he  afterwards  told  me.  I 
did  not  awaken  from  my  sleep  until  eleven  o'clock  in 
the  forenoon,  soon  after  which  Mr.  Lincoln  came  into
356     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
my  room,  and  laughingly  said,  '  When  you  are  ready, 
I  '11  pilot  you  down  to  breakfast,'  which  he  did.  Seat 
ing  himself  at  the  table  near  me,  he  expressed  his  fears 
that  trouble  was  brewing  on  the  New  Brunswick  bor 
der;  he  said  he  had  gathered  further  information  on 
that  point  from  the  correspondence,  which  convinced 
him  that  such  was  the  case.  He  was  here  interrupted 
by  a  servant,  who  handed  him  a  card,  upon  reading 
which  he  arose,  saying,  '  The  Secretary  of  War  has 
received  important  tidings ;  I  must  leave  you  for  the 
present ;  come  to  my  room  after  breakfast  and  we  '11 
talk  over  this  New  Brunswick  affair." 
"  On  entering  his  room  again,  I  found  him  busily 
engaged  in  writing,  at  the  same  time  repeating  in  a  low 
voice  the  words  of  a  poem  which  I  remembered  reading 
many  years  before.  When  he  stopped  writing  I  asked 
him  who  was  the  author  of  that  poem.  He  replied, 
'  I  do  not  know.  I  have  written  the  verses  down  from 
memory,  at  the  request  of  a  lady  who  is  much  pleased 
with  them.'  He  passed  the  sheet,  on  which  he  had 
written  the  verses,  to  me,  saying,  *  Have  you  ever  read 
them?  '  I  replied  that  I  had,  many  years  previously, 
and  that  I  should  be  pleased  to  have  a  copy  of  them  in 
his  handwriting,  when  he  had  time  and  an  inclination 
for  such  work.  He  said,  '  Well,  you  may  keep  that 
copy,  if  you  wish.' ' 
Hon.  William  D.  Kelly,  a  Member  of  Congress  from 
Pennsylvania,  relates  that  during  the  time  of  McClel- 
lan's  Peninsular  campaign  he  called  at  the  White 
House  one  morning,  and  while  waiting  to  see  the  Presi 
dent,  Senator  Wilson  of  Massachusetts  entered  the 
chamber,  having  with  him  four  distinguished-looking 
Englishmen.  The  President,  says  Mr.  Kelly,  "  had 
evidently  had  an  early  appointment,  and  had  not  com 
pleted  his  toilet.  He  was  in  slippers,  and  his  panta 
loons,  when  he  crossed  one  knee  over  the  other,  dis-
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     357 
closed  the  fact  that  he  wore  heavy  blue  woollen  stock 
ings.  It  was  an  agreeable  surprise  to  learn  that  the 
chief  of  the  visiting  party  was  Professor  Goldwin 
Smith  of  Canada,  one  of  the  firmest  of  our  British 
friends.  As  the  President  rose  to  greet  them,  he  was 
the  very  impersonation  of  easy,  dignity,  notwithstand 
ing  the  negligence  of  his  costume.  With  a  tact  that 
never  deserted  him,  he  opened  the  conversation  with  an 
inquiry  as  to  the  health  of  his  friend  John  Bright, 
whom  he  said  he  regarded  as  a  friend  of  our  country 
and  of  freedom  everywhere.  The  visitors  having  been 
seated,  the  magnitude  of  recent  battles  was  referred  to 
by  Professor  Smith  as  preliminary  to  the  question 
whether  the  enormous  losses  which  were  so  frequently 
occurring  would  not  so  reduce  the  industrial  resources 
of  the  North  as  to  affect  seriously  the  prosperity  of 
individual  citizens  and  consequently  the  revenue  of  the 
country.  He  justified  the  question  by  proceeding  to 
recite  the  number  of  killed,  wounded,  and  missing,  re 
ported  after  some  of  the  great  battles  recently  fought. 
There  were  two  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  official  friends  who 
lived  in  dread  of  his  little  stories.  Neither  of  them  was 
gifted  with  humor,  and  both  could  understand  his 
propositions,  which  were  always  distinct  and  clean  cut, 
without  such  familiar  illustrations  as  those  in  which 
he  so  often  indulged;  and  they  were  chagrined  when 
ever  they  were  compelled  to  hear  him  resort  to  his 
stories  in  the  presence  of  distinguished  strangers. 
They  were  Senator  Wilson  of  Massachusetts  and  Mr. 
Stanton,  Secretary  of  War;  and,  as  Professor  Smith 
closed  his  arithmetical  statement,  the  time  came  for 
the  Massachusetts  Senator  to  bite  his  lips,  for  the 
President,  crossing  his  legs  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
show  that  his  blue  stockings  were  long  as  well  as  thick, 
said  that,  in  settling  such  matters  as  that,  we  must  re 
sort  to  '  darkey  arithmetic.'  '  To  darkey  arithmetic  !  '
358     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
exclaimed  the  dignified  representative  of  the  learning 
and  higher  thought  of  Great  Britain  and  her  American 
Dominion.  '  I  did  not  know,  Mr.  President,  that  you 
have  two  systems  of  arithmetic.'  *  Oh,  yes,'  said  the 
President ;  '  I  will  illustrate  that  point  by  a  little  story. 
Two  young  contrabands,  as  we  have  learned  to  call 
them,  were  seated  together,  when  one  said  to  the  other, 
"  Jim,  do  you  know  'rithmetic  ?  "  Jim  answered,  "  No ; 
what  is  'rithmetic?"  "Well,"  said  the  other,  "it's 
when  you  add  up  things.  When  you  have  one  and  one, 
and  you  put  dem  togedder,  dey  makes  two.  And  when 
you  subtracts  things,  when  if  you  have  two  things  and 
you  takes  one  away,  only  one  remains."  "  Is  dat  'rith 
metic?  "  "Yah."  "Well,  'tain't  true,  den.  It's  no 
good !  "  Here  a  dispute  arose,  when  Jim  said,  "  Now, 
you  'spose  three  pigeons  sit  on  that  fence,  and  some 
body  shoot  one  of  dem;  do  t'other  two  stay  dar?  I 
guess  not!  dey  flies  away  quickern  odder  feller  falls." 
And,  Professor,  trifling  as  the  story  seems,  it  illustrates 
the  arithmetic  you  must  use  in  estimating  the  actual 
losses  resulting  from  our  great  battles.  The  statements 
you  have  referred  to  give  the  killed,  wounded,  and  miss 
ing  at  the  first  roll-call  after  the  battle,  which  always 
exhibits  a  greatly  exaggerated  total,  especially  in  the 
column  of  missing.'  ' 
Mr.  Goldwin  Smith,  the  gentleman  referred  to  in 
the  foregoing  anecdote,  has  summarized  his  impressions 
of  Lincoln  in  the  following  paragraph :  "  Such  a 
person  as  Abraham  Lincoln  is  quite  unknown  to  our 
official  circles  or  to  those  of  Continental  nations.  In 
deed,  I  think  his  place  in  history  will  be  unique.  He  has 
not  been  trained  to  diplomacy  or  administrative  affairs, 
and  is  in  all  respects  one  of  the  people.  But  how  won 
derfully  he  is  endowed  and  equipped  for  the  perform 
ance  of  the  duties  of  the  chief  executive  officer  of  the 
United  States  at  this  time !  The  precision  and  minute-
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     359 
ness  of  his  information  on  all  questions  to  which  we 
referred  was  a  succession  of  surprises  to  me." 
Still  terser,  but  hardly  less  expressive,  is  Emerson's 
characterization  of  Lincoln  as  one  who  had  been  "  per 
mitted  to  do  more  for  America  than  any  other  Ameri 
can  man." 
A  striking  passage  by  Mr.  Norman  Hapgood  should 
have  place  among  these  tributes.  "  Lincoln  had  no 
artificial  aids.  He  merely  proved  the  weapon  of  finest 
temper  in  the  fire  in  which  he  was  tested.  In  the 
struggle  for  survival  in  a  national  upheaval,  he  not 
only  proved  the  living  power  of  integrity  and  elasticity, 
but  he  easily  combined  with  his  feats  of  strength  and 
shrewdness  some  of  the  highest  flights  of  taste.  As  we 
look  back  across  the  changes  of  his  life,  —  see  him  pass 
ing  over  the  high  places  and  the  low,  and  across  the 
long  stretches  of  the  prairie;  spending  years  in  the 
Socratic  arguments  of  the  tavern,  and  anon  holding 
the  rudder  of  state  in  grim  silence;  choosing  jests 
which  have  the  freshness  of  earth,  and  principles  of 
eternal  right;  judging  potentates  and  laborers  in  the 
clear  light  of  nature,  and  at  ease  with  both;  alone 
by  virtue  of  a  large  and  melancholy  soul,  at  home 
with  every  man  by  virtue  of  love  and  faith,  —  this 
figure  takes  its  place  high  in  our  minds  and  hearts, 
not  solely  through  the  natural  right  of  strength  and 
success,  but  also  because  his  strength  is  ours,  and  the 
success  won  by  him  rested  on  the  fundamental  purity 
and  health  of  the  popular  will  of  which  he  was  the 
leader  and  the  servant.  Abraham  Lincoln  was  in  a  deep 
and  lasting  sense  the  first  American." 
Mr.  John  Bigelow,  already  quoted  in  these  pages, 
summarized  Lincoln's  character  and  achievements  in  a 
passage  of  singular  eloquence  and  force.  "  Lincoln's 
greatness  must  be  sought  for  in  the  constituents  of  his 
moral  nature.  He  was  so  modest  by  nature  that  he
360     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
was  perfectly  content  to  walk  behind  any  man  who 
wished  to  walk  before  him.  I  do  not  know  that  history 
has  made  a  record  of  the  attainment  of  any  correspond 
ing  eminence  by  any  other  man  who  so  habitually,  so 
constitutionally,  did  to  others  as  he  would  have  them 
do  to  him.  Without  any  pretensions  to  religious  excel 
lence,  from  the  time  he  first  was  brought  under  the 
observation  of  the  nation  he  seemed,  like  Milton,  to 
have  walked  '  as  ever  in  his  great  Taskmaster's  eye.' 
St.  Paul  hardly  endured  more  indignities  and  buffetings 
without  complaint.  He  was  not  a  learned  man.  He 
wras  not  even  one  who  would  deserve  to  be  called  in 
our  day  an  educated  man  —  knew  little  rather  than 
much  of  what  the  world  is  proud  of.  He  had  never 
been  out  of  the  United  States,  or  seen  much  of  the 
portion  of  them  lying  east  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains. 
But  the  spiritual  side  of  his  nature  was  so  highly  or 
ganized  that  it  rendered  superfluous  much  of  the  ex 
perience  which  to  most  men  is  indispensable  —  the 
choicest  prerogative  of  genius.  It  lifted  him  uncon 
sciously  above  the  world,  above  most  of  the  men  who 
surrounded  him,  and  gave  him  a  wisdom  in  emergencies 
which  is  bestowed  only  on  those  who  love  their  fellow- 
man  as  themselves.  ...  In  the  ordinary  sense  of  the 
word,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  a  statesman.  Had  he  come 
to  power  when  Van  Buren  did,  or  when  Cleveland  did, 
he  would  probably  have  left  Washington  at  the  close 
of  his  term  as  obscure  as  either  of  them.  The  issues 
presented  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  at  the 
Presidential  election  of  1860  were  to  a  larger  extent 
moral  questions,  humanly  speaking,  than  were  those 
presented  at  any  other  Presidential  election.  They 
were:  first,  the  right  of  the  majority  to  rule;  second, 
the  right  of  eight  millions,  more  or  less,  of  our  fellow- 
beings  to  their  freedom;  and,  third,  the  institutions 
and  traditions  which  Washington  planted  and  Jefferson
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     361 
watered,  with  the  sacrifices  necessary  for  their  preser 
vation.  These  questions  subordinated  all  other  political 
issues,  and  appealed  more  directly  and  forcibly  to  the 
moral  sentiments  of  this  nation  than  any  issues  they 
had  ever  before  been  called  to  settle  either  at  the  ballot- 
box  or  by  force  of  arms.  A  President  was  needed  at 
Washington  to  represent  these  moral  forces.  Such  a 
President  was  providentially  found  in  Lincoln  .  .  . 
a  President  who  walked  by  faith  and  not  by  sight ;  who 
did  not  rely  upon  his  own  compass,  but  followed  a 
cloud  by  day  and  a  fire  by  night,  which  he  had  learned 
to  trust  implicitly." 
A  very  graphic  summing-up  of  Lincoln  in  person 
and  character  is  that  of  Mr.  John  G.  Nicolay,  one  of 
his  private  secretaries,  who  knew  him  intimately  and 
understood  him  well.  "  President  Lincoln  was  of  un 
usual  stature,  six  feet  four  inches,  and  of  spare  but 
muscular  build,"  says  Mr.  Nicolay.  "  He  had  been 
in  youth  remarkably  strong  and  skilful  in  the  athletic 
games  of  the  frontier,  where,  however,  his  popularity 
and  recognized  impartiality  oftener  made  him  an  um 
pire  than  a  champion.  He  had  regular  and  prepossess 
ing  features,  dark  complexion,  broad,  high  forehead, 
prominent  cheek  bones,  gray,  deep-set  eyes,  and  bushy, 
black  hair,  turning  to  gray  at  the  time  of  his  death. 
Abstemious  in  his  habits,  he  possessed  great  physical 
endurance.  He  was  almost  as  tender-hearted  as  a  wo 
man.  '  I  have  not  willingly  planted  a  thorn  in  any 
man's  bosom,'  he  was  able  to  say.  His  patience  was 
inexhaustible.  He  had  naturally  a  most  cheerful  and 
sunny  temper,  was  highly  social  and  sympathetic,  loved 
pleasant  conversation,  wit,  anecdote,  and  laughter.  Be 
neath  this,  however,  ran  an  undercurrent  of  sadness ; 
he  was  occasionally  subject  to  hours  of  deep  silence 
and  introspection  that  approached  a  condition  of 
trance.  In  manner  he  was  simple,  direct,  void  of  the
362     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
least  affectation,  and  entirely  free  from  awkwardness, 
oddity,  or  eccentricity.  His  mental  qualities  were  a 
quick  analytic  perception,  strong  logical  powers,  a 
tenacious  memory,  a  liberal  estimate  and  tolerance  of 
the  opinions  of  others,  ready  intuition  of  human  na 
ture;  and  perhaps  his  most  valuable  faculty  was  rare 
ability  to  divest  himself  of  all  feeling  or  passion  in 
weighing  motives  of  persons  or  problems  of  state.  His 
speech  and  diction  were  plain,  terse,  forcible.  Relating 
anecdotes  with  appreciating  humor  and  fascinating  dra 
matic  skill,  he  used  them  freely  and  effectively  in  con 
versation  and  argument.  He  loved  manliness,  truth, 
and  justice.  He  despised  all  trickery  and  selfish  greed. 
In  arguments  at  the  bar  he  was  so  fair  to  his  opponent 
that  he  frequently  appeared  to  concede  away  his  client's 
case.  He  was  ever  ready  to  take  blame  on  himself  and 
bestow  praise  on  others.  '  I  claim  not  to  have  con 
trolled  events,'  he  said,  6  but  confess  plainly  that  events 
have  controlled  me.'  The  Declaration  of  Independence 
was  his  political  chart  and  inspiration.  He  acknowl 
edged  a  universal  equality  of  human  rights.  '  Cer 
tainly  the  negro  is  not  our  equal  in  color,'  he  said, 
*  perhaps  not  in  many  other  respects ;  still,  in  the 
right  to  put  into  his  mouth  the  bread  that  his  own 
hands  have  earned,  he  is  the  equal  of  every  other  man, 
white  or  black.'  He  had  unchanging  faith  in  self- 
government.  '  The  people,'  he  said,  *  are  the  rightful 
masters  of  both  congresses  and  courts,  not  to  over 
throw  the  Constitution,  but  to  overthrow  the  men  who 
pervert  the  Constitution.'  Yielding  and  accommodat 
ing  in  non-essentials,  he  was  inflexibly  firm  in  a  principle 
or  position  deliberately  taken.  '  Let  us  have  faith  that 
right  makes  might,'  he  said,  '  and  in  that  faith  let  us  to 
the  end  dare  to  do  our  duty  as  we  understand  it.'  .  .  ."
CHAPTER    XVIII 
Lincoln  and  his  Cabinet  —  An  Odd  Assortment  of  Officials  —  Miscon 
ceptions  of  Rights  and  Duties  —  Frictions  and  Misunderstandings 
—  The  Early  Cabinet  Meetings  —  Informal  Conversational  Affairs 
—  Queer  Attitude  toward  the  War  —  Regarded  as  a  Political  Af 
fair  —  Proximity  to  Washington  a  Hindrance  to  Military  Success  — 
Disturbances    in   the   Cabinet  —  A    Senate   Committee  Demands 
Seward's  Removal  from  the  Cabinet  —  Lincoln's  Mastery  of  the 
Situation  —  Harmony  Restored  —  Stanton    becomes   War  Secre 
tary  —  Sketch  of   a    Remarkable    Man  —  Next    to  Lincoln,   the 
Master-mind  of  the  Cabinet  —  Lincoln  the  Dominant  Power. 
PRESIDENT  LINCOLN'S  Cabinet,  while  contain 
ing  men  of  marked  ability  and  fitness  for  their 
positions,  was  in  some  respects  about  as  ill-assorted  and 
heterogeneous  a  body  of  men  as  were  ever  called  to 
serve  together  as  ministers  and  advisers  of  a  great  gov 
ernment.  Its  selection  was  a  surprise  to  the  country. 
Mr.  John  Bigelow  said  it  "  had  the  appearance  of  being 
selected  from  a  grab-bag."  "  Not  one  of  the  members," 
continues  Mr.  Bigelow,  "  was  a  personal  or  much  of  a 
political  friend  of  Mr.  Lincoln ;  -not  one  of  them  had 
ever  had  any  experience  or  training  in  any  executive 
office,  except  Welles  of  Connecticut,  if  he  could  be 
claimed  as  an  exception  because  of  having  served  three 
years  in  a  bureau  of  the  Navy  in  Washington.  Of 
military  administration,  still  less  of  actual  war,  no 
member  knew  anything  by  experience.  The  heads  of 
the  two  most  important  departments,  the  Secretaries 
of  State  and  the  Treasury,  were  both  disappointed 
candidates  for  the  chair  occupied  by  Mr.  Lincoln.  It 
was  nothing  less  than  Providential  that  the  President 
was  so  happily  constituted  as  neither  to  share  nor  to
364     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
provoke  any  of  the  jealousies  or  envies  of  either  of 
them,  and  by  his  absolute  freedom  from  every  selfish 
impulse  gradually  compelled  them  all  to  look  up  to 
him  as  the  one  person  in  whose  singleness  of  eye  they 
could  all  and  always  confide.  Not  immediately,  but  in 
the  course  of  two  or  three  years,  they  got  into  the  habit 
of  turning  to  him  like  quarrelling  children  to  their 
mother  to  settle  all  the  questions  that  temporarily 
divided  them." 
These  Cabinet  ministers  were  a  devoted  and  patriotic 
body  of  men,  but  their  misconceptions  of  their  respec 
tive  rights  and  duties  were  at  first  grotesque.  Mr. 
Seward,  a  man  of  far  greater  administrative  experience 
than  Lincoln,  assumed  that  he,  rather  than  the  Presi 
dent,  was  to  be  the  master  mind  of  the  new  adminis 
tration.  "  Premier  "  he  at  first  called  himself.  Mr. 
Stanton,  the  Secretary  of  War,  thought  the  Navy 
should  be  a  sort  of  adjunct  to  the  War  Department  — 
an  error  of  which  Secretary  Welles  of  the  Navy  De 
partment  speedily  relieved  him.  These  two  men  were 
altogether  too  unlike  to  get  on  well  together.  The  cold 
and  somewhat  stately  Welles  was  repelled  by  Stanton's 
impulsiveness  and  violence,  while  Stanton  was  exasper 
ated  by  Welles's  calmness  and  lack  of  excitability. 
"  Lincoln's  ministers  had  no  idea  that  he  towered  above 
them,"  says  Mr.  John  T.  Morse,  Jr.,  "  and  no  one  of 
them  was  at  all  overawed  by  him  in  those  days.  Pre 
siding  over  them  at  the  Cabinet,  casually  meeting  them, 
chatting  with  them  or  lounging  as  was  his  habit  in 
Stanton's  room,  Lincoln  seemed  only  officially  superior 
to  them.  One  of  them  had  expected  to  be  President, 
and  another  meant  to  be;  a  third  dared  to  be  insolent 
and  unruly ;  it  seemed  to  be  only  by  a  chance  of  politics 
that  these  men  stood  to  him  as  junior  partners  to  a 
senior,  or  like  a  board  of  directors  to  the  president  of 
a  corporation."
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     365 
The  unfriendly  feeling  existing  between  members  of 
the  Cabinet  comes  out  in  many  entries  in  Welles's 
Diary.  "  Pressing,  assuming,  violent,  impatient,  in 
triguing,  harsh,  and  arbitrary,"  are  examples  of  the 
terms  in  which  Stanton  is  spoken  of  by  Welles  His 
contempt  for  the  Committee  on  the  Conduct  of  the 
War  is  expressed  in  no  less  stinging  words.  The  mem 
bers  of  this  committee  "  are  most  of  them  narrow  and 
prejudiced  partisans,  mischievous  busybodies,  and  a 
discredit  to  Congress.  Mean  and  contemptible  parti 
sanship  colors  all  their  acts."  It  is  amusing  to  note 
that  while  Secretary  Welles  was  thus  outspoken  in  his 
criticisms  of  others,  he  himself  did  not  escape  calumny. 
One  critic  (Thurlow  Weed,  who,  it  may  be  remembered, 
had  objected  to  Welles's  appointment  to  a  Cabinet  posi 
tion  when  Lincoln  suggested  it  to  him  in  their  con 
sultation  at  Springfield  before  the  inauguration)  de 
clared  that  "  It  is  worse  than  a  fault,  it  is  a  crime,  to 
keep  that  old  imbecile  at  the  head  of  the  Navy  De 
partment."  And  another  critic  expressed  the  uncom 
plimentary  opinion  that  "  If  Lincoln  would  send  old 
Welles  back  to  Hartford,  it  would  be  better  for  the 
Navy  and  for  the  country." 
The  accounts  of  the  earliest  Cabinet  meetings,  as 
given  by  Secretary  Welles,  who  was  nearly  always  pres 
ent,  are  full  of  interest.  "  Cabinet  meetings,  which 
at  that  exciting  period  should  have  been  daily,  were 
infrequent,  irregular,  and  without  system,"  says  Mr. 
Welles.  "  The  Secretary  of  State  notified  his  asso 
ciates  when  the  President  desired  a  meeting  of  the 
heads  of  Departments.  It  seemed  unadvisable  to  the 
Premier  —  as  he  liked  to  be  called  and  considered  — 
that  the  members  should  meet  often,  and  they  did  not. 
Consequently  there  was  very  little  concerted  action. 
At  the  earlier  meetings  there  was  little  or  no  formality ; 
the  Cabinet  meetings  were  a  sort  of  privy  council  or
366     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
gathering  of  equals,  much  like  a  Senatorial  caucus, 
where  there  was  no  recognized  leader  and  the  Secretary 
of  State  put  himself  in  advance  of  the  President.  No 
seats  were  assigned  or  regularly  taken.  The  Secretary 
of  State  was  invariably  present  some  little  time  before 
the  Cabinet  assembled,  and  from  his  former  position 
as  the  chief  executive  of  the  largest  State  in  the  Union 
as  well  as  from  his  recent  place  as  a  Senator,  and  from 
his  admitted  experience  and  familiarity  with  affairs, 
assumed,  and  was  allowed,  as  was  proper,  to  take  the 
lead  in  consultations  and  also  to  give  tone  and  direction 
to  the  manner  and  mode  of  proceedings.  The  Presi 
dent,  if  he  did  not  actually  wish,  readily  acquiesced  in, 
this.  Mr.  Lincoln,  having  never  had  experience  in  ad 
ministering  the  Government,  State  or  National,  de 
ferred  to  the  suggestions  and  course  of  those  who  had. 
Mr.  Seward  was  not  slow  in  taking  upon  himself  to 
prescribe  action  and  to  do  most  of  the  talking,  without 
much  regard  to  the  modest  chief,  but  often  to  the  dis 
gust  of  his  associates,  particularly  Mr.  Bates,  who  was 
himself  always  courteous  and  respectful,  and  to  the 
annoyance  of  Mr.  Chase,  who  had  had,  like  Mr.  Seward, 
experience  as  a  chief  magistrate.  Discussions  were 
desultory  and  without  order  or  system;  but  in  the 
summing-up  and  conclusions  the  President,  who  was  a 
patient  listener  and  learner,  concentrated  results,  and 
often  determined  questions  adverse  to  the  Secretary  of 
State,  regarding  him  and  his  opinions,  as  he  did  those 
of  his  other  advisers,  for  what  they  were  worth  and 
generally  no  more." 
It  was  perhaps  natural,  in  a  country  so  long  free 
from  wars  as  ours  had  been,  that  the  Civil  War  should 
be  regarded  as  a  sort  of  political  affair  to  be  directed 
from  Washington  rather  than  by  commanders  in  the 
field.  For  the  first  year  or  so  the  feeling  was  quite 
general  that  military  affairs  should  be  directed  by
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     367 
• 
Congress,  acting  through  its  Committee  on  the  Conduct 
of  the  War,  and  by  the  Secretary  of  War,  who  com 
plained  bitterly  that  he  was  not  allowed  to  assume 
control  of  military  movements  and  that  his  plans  were 
thwarted  by  McClellan  (whom  he  especially  hated). 
The  President  himself  did  not  escape  this  condemna 
tion.  The  feeling  at  this  time  is  expressed  in  a  sen 
tence  in  Stanton's  complaint,  reflected  through  Chase, 
that  "  the  President  takes  counsel  of  none  but  army 
officers  in  army  matters."  Chase  declared  to  Welles, 
according  to  the  latter,  that  the  Treasury  as  well  as 
other  departments  "  ought  to  be  informed  of  the  par 
ticulars  of  every  movement."  The  generals  engaged 
in  planning  the  campaigns  and  fighting  the  battles  of 
the  war,  and  their  commander-in-chief  the  President, 
could  hardly  fail  to  find  their  task  an  uphill  one  when 
ideas  so  nai've  and  fatuous  as  these  prevailed.  It  is  no 
wonder  that  General  Grant  recorded  in  his  Memoirs 
the  opinion  that  the  great  difficulty  with  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac  during  the  first  year  of  the  war  was  its 
proximity  to  Washington;  that  the  conditions  made 
success  practically  impossible ;  and  that  neither  he, 
nor  General  Sherman,  nor  any  officer  known  to  him, 
could  have  succeeded  in  General  McClellan's  place,  un 
der  the  conditions  that  then  existed.  Gradually,  and 
by  slow  and  often  painful  experience,  a  clearer  concep 
tion  of  the  meaning  and  methods  of  war  prevailed. 
In  this,  as  in  so  many  things,  Lincoln's  insight  was 
first  and  surest.  By  patience,  tact,  shrewdness,  firm 
ness,  and  diplomatic  skill,  he  held  the  Cabinet  together 
and  stimulated  its  members  to  their  best  efforts  for  the 
common  cause. 
But  the  personal  frictions  and  dissensions  in  the 
Cabinet,  and  the  more  or  less  meddlesome  attitude  of 
leaders  in  the  Senate  and  the  House,  at  times  sorely 
tried  the  strength  and  patience  of  the  harassed  Presi-
368     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
dent,  compelling  him  to  act  the  part  of  peacemaker, 
and  sometimes  of  judge  and  arbiter  as  well.  At  one 
time  Secretary  Stanton  threatened  to  resign;  and 
Chase  declared  that  in  that  case  he  should  go  with 
him.  Stanton  and  Welles  were  in  frequent  antagonism, 
Welles  stating  in  his  Diary  that  Stanton  assumed,  or 
tried  to  assume,  that  the  Navy  should  be  subject  to  the 
direction  of  the  War  Department.  Seward  was  "  med 
dlesome  "  toward  other  departments ;  "  runs  to  the 
President  two  or  three  times  a  day;  wants  to  be 
Premier,"  etc.,  says  Welles.  "  Between  Seward  and 
Chase  there  was  perpetual  rivalry  and  mutual  but 
courtly  distrust;  they  entered  the  Cabinet  as  rivals, 
and  in  cold  courtesy  so  continued."  The  most  serious 
of  these  Cabinet  embroglios  occurred  late  in  December 
of  1862,  while  Lincoln  was  well-nigh  overwhelmed  by 
Burnside's  dreadful  repulse  at  Fredericksburg.  The 
gist  of  the  affair,  as  given  by  Mr.  Welles,  is  that  the 
opposition  to  Seward  in  the  Senate  grew  to  such  a 
point  that  a  committee  was  appointed  to  wait  on  the 
President  and  request  Seward's  removal  from  the  office 
of  Secretary  of  State.  The  President,  Mr.  Welles  tells 
us,  was  "  shocked  and  grieved  "  at  this  demonstration. 
He  asked  all  the  members  of  his  Cabinet  to  meet  the 
Senate  committee  with  him.  All  the  members  of  the 
Cabinet  were  present  except  Seward,  who  had  already 
sent  the  President  his  resignation.  The  meeting  was 
attended  also  by  Senators  Collamer,  Fessenden,  Harris, 
Trumbull,  Grimes,  Howard,  Sumner,  and  Pomeroy. 
The  President,  says  Mr.  Welles,  opened  the  subject 
for  which  the  meeting  was  called,  taking  a  conciliatory 
tone  toward  the  Senators,  and  requesting  from  each 
in  turn  an  expression  of  opinion  as  to  the  wisdom  of 
dropping  Seward  from  the  Cabinet.  Most  of  them 
were  strongly  of  the  opinion  that  Seward  ought  to  go. 
The  President  presented  his  own  views,  which  were,  in
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     369 
effect,  that  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  let  Seward  leave 
the  Cabinet  at  that  particular  time.  "  He  managed 
his  own  case,"  says  Mr.  Welles,  "  speaking  freely,  and 
showing  great  tact,  shrewdness,  and  ability."  The  meet 
ing  continued  until  nearly  midnight,  and  the  matter 
'was  left  still  in  the  President's  hands.  The  next  morn 
ing  Mr.  Welles  called  early  at  the  White  House  and 
found  Lincoln  practically  decided  not  to  accept  Sew- 
ard's  resignation,  saying  that  it  would  never  do  to  take 
the  course  prescribed  by  the  Senators ;  that  "  the 
Government  would  cave  in ;  it  could  not  stand  —  would 
not  hold  water;  the  bottom  would  be  out,"  etc.  He 
requested  Welles  to  go  at  once  to  Seward  and  ask  him 
not  to  press  his  resignation.  Lincoln's  intuitional  mind 
seemed  at  once  to  connect  Secretary  Chase  with  the 
attack  on  Seward.  Before  Welles  left  the  room,  the 
President  rang  a  bell  and  directed  that  a  message  be 
sent  to  Chase  requesting  him  to  come  at  once  to  the 
White  House.  When  Welles  returned  from  his  inter 
view  with  Seward,  who  readily  promised  to  withdraw 
his  resignation  at  the  President's  request,  he  found  both 
Chase  and  Seward  waiting  for  the  President.  The  lat 
ter  soon  came  in,  and  his  first  words  were  to  ask  Welles 
if  he  "  had  seen  the  man,"  to  which  Welles  answered 
that  he  had,  and  that  he  assented  to  what  had  been 
asked  of  him.  The  dramatic  scene  that  followed  is  thus 
described  by  Mr.  Welles  in  his  Diary :  "  The  President 
turned  to  Chase  and  said,  '  I  sent  for  you,  for  this 
matter  is  giving  me  great  trouble.'  Chase  said  he  had 
been  painfully  affected  by  the  meeting  last  evening, 
which  was  a  total  surprise  to  him ;  and,  after  some  not 
very  explicit  remarks  as  to  how  he  was  affected,  in 
formed  the  President  he  had  prepared  his  resignation 
of  the  office  of  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  *  Where  is 
it?  '  said  the  President  quickly,  his  eye  lighting  up  in 
a  moment.  '  I  brought  it  with  me,'  said  Chase,  taking
370     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
the  paper  from  his  pocket ;  '  I  wrote  it  this  morning.' 
'  Let  me  have  it,'  said  the  President,  reaching  his  long 
arm  and  fingers  toward  Chase,  who  held  on,  seemingly 
reluctant  to  part  with  the  letter,  which  was  sealed,  and 
which  he  apparently  hesitated  to  surrender.  Some 
thing  further  he  wished  to  say;  but  the  President  was 
eager  and  did  not  perceive  it,  and  took  and  hastily 
opened  the  letter.  '  This,'  said  he,  looking  toward  me 
with  a  triumphant  air,  '  cuts  the  Gordian  Knot.  I  can 
now  dispose  of  this  subject  without  difficulty.  I  see  my 
way  clear.'  Chase  sat  by  Stanton,  fronting  the  fire; 
the  President  beside  the  fire,  his  face  toward  them, 
Stanton  nearest  him.  I  was  on  the  sofa,  near  the 
east  window.  '  Mr.  President,'  said  Stanton,  with 
solemnity,  '  I  informed  you  day  before  yesterday  that  I 
was  ready  to  tender  you  my  resignation.  I  wish  you, 
sir,  to  consider  my  resignation  at  this  time  in  your 
possession.'  '  You  may  go  to  your  department,'  said 
the  President ;  '  I  don't  want  yours.  This,'  holding  out 
Chase's  letter,  '  is  all  I  want ;  this  relieves  me ;  my  way 
is  clear;  the  trouble  is  ended.  I  will  detain  neither  of 
you  longer.'  We  all  rose  to  leave,"  concludes  Mr. 
Welles.  "  Chase  and  myself  came  downstairs  together. 
He  was  moody  and  taciturn.  Someone  stopped  him  on 
the  lower  stairs,  and  I  passed  on." 
A  few  days  later,  the  President  requested  both  Sew- 
ard  and  Chase  to  withdraw  their  resignations  and  re 
sume  their  duties.  This  was  done,  and  the  trouble  was 
ended  for  the  time.  Both  Secretaries  had  got  their 
lessons,  and  profited  by  them.  By  the  exercise  of  tact 
and  patience,  with  firmness  and  decision  when  required, 
the  President  had  let  it  be  known  that  he  was  the  head 
and  chief  of  the  Administration. 
Next  to  the  President,  it  was  not  Secretary  Seward, 
the  "  Premier  "  as  he  wished  to  be  regarded,  but  the 
War  Secretary,  Stanton,  who  was  the  master-mind  of
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     371 
the  Cabinet.  He  was  the  incarnation  of  energy,  the 
embodiment  of  patriotic  zeal.  With  all  his  faults 
of  temper  and  disposition,  he  was  a  man  of  singular 
fitness  for  the  responsible  position  he  occupied,  and 
his  services  to  the  Government  can  hardly  be  over 
estimated.  He  had  been  a  Democrat,  a  member  of 
Buchanan's  Cabinet,  and  was,  says  Dr.  Holland,  "  the 
first  one  in  that  Cabinet  to  protest  against  the  down 
right  treason  into  which  it  was  drifting.  He  was  a 
man  of  indomitable  energy,  devoted  loyalty,  and  thor 
ough  honesty.  Contractors  could  not  manipulate  him, 
traitors  could  not  deceive  him.  Impulsive,  perhaps,  but 
true ;  wilful,  it  is  possible,  but  placable ;  impatient,  but 
persistent  and  efficient,  —  he  became  at  once  one  of  the 
most  marked  and  important  of  the  members  of  the 
Cabinet."  Lincoln  and  Stanton  together  were  em 
phatically  "  a  strong  team." 
Stanton  was  not  a  member  of  Lincoln's  first  Cabinet, 
but  came  into  it  at  the  beginning  of  1862,  in  place  of 
Simon  Cameron,  who  had  just  been  appointed  Minister 
to  Russia.  A  very  interesting  account  of  Cameron's 
personal  relations  with  Lincoln,  the  causes  that  led  to 
his  retirement  from  the  Cabinet,  and  the  appointment 
of  Stanton  in  his  place,  is  given  by  Cameron  himself. 
He  had  been  the  choice  of  the  Pennsylvania  delegation 
for  President,  at  the  Chicago  Convention  in  1860,  and 
it  was  largely  due  to  him  that  Lincoln  received  the 
nomination.  "  After  the  election,"  said  Mr.  Cameron, 
"  I  made  a  trip  to  the  West  at  Mr.  Lincoln's  request. 
He  had,  by  letter,  tendered  me  the  position  of  either 
Secretary  of  War  or  Secretary  of  the  Treasury;  but 
when  I  went  to  see  him  he  said  that  he  had  concluded 
to  make  Mr.  Seward  Secretary  of  State,  and  he  wanted 
to  give  a  place  to  Mr.  Chase.  *  Salmon  P.  Chase,'  said 
he,  '  is  a  very  ambitious  man.'  '  Very  well,'  said  I, 
*  then  the  War  Department  is  the  place  for  him.  We
372     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
are  going  to  have  an  armed  conflict  over  your  election, 
and  the  place  for  an  ambitious  man  is  in  the  War 
Department.  There  he  will  have  lots  of  room  to  make 
a  reputation.'  These  thoughts  of  mine,  that  we  were 
to  have  war,  disturbed  Mr.  Lincoln  very  much,  and 
he  seemed  to  think  I  was  entirely  too  certain  about 
it.  Finally,  when  he  came  to  make  up  his  Cabinet, 
doubtless  remembering  what  I  had  said  about  the 
War  Department,  he  appointed  me  Secretary  of 
War." 
"  There  has  been,"  continues  Mr.  Cameron,  "  a 
great  deal  of  misstatement  as  to  Mr.  Stanton's  appoint 
ment  as  my  successor.  Stanton  had  been  my  attorney 
from  the  time  I  went  into  the  War  Department  until 
he  took  my  place  as  Secretary.  I  had  hardly  made 
a  move  in  which  the  legality  of  any  question  could  arise. 
I  had  taken  his  advice.  I  believed  in  the  vigorous 
prosecution  of  the  war  from  the  start,  while  Mr.  Sew- 
ard  believed  in  dallying  and  compromising,  and  Mr. 
Chase  was  constantly  agitated  about  the  expenditure 
of  money;  therefore  it  was  that  I  was  careful  to  have 
the  advice  of  an  able  lawyer.  When  the  question  of 
changing  me  from  the. War  Department  to  the  Russian 
mission  came  up,  Mr.  Lincoln  said  to  me,  *  Whom  shall 
I  appoint  in  your  place?  '  My  prompt  response  was, 
<  Edwin  M.  Stanton.'  '  But,'  said  he,  '  I  had  thought 
of  giving  it  to  Holt.'  ;  Mr.  Lincoln,'  said  I,  '  if  I  am 
to  retire  in  the  present  situation  of  affairs,  it  seems  but 
proper  that  a  friend  of  mine,  or  at  least  a  man  not 
unfriendly  to  me,  should  be  appointed  in  my  place.  If 
you  give  Mr.  Stanton  the  position,  you  will  not  only 
accomplish  this  object  but  will  please  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania  and  also  get  an  excellent  officer.'  *  Very 
well,'  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  '  you  go  and  see  him,  and  if  he 
will  accept  the  place  he  shall  have  it.'  I  left  the  White 
House  and  started  to  find  Stanton,  passing  through  the
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     373 
Treasury  Department  on  my  way.  As  I  passed  Mr. 
Chase's  office,  I  stepped  in  and  told  him  what  had  oc 
curred  between  the  President  and  myself.  He  said, 
'  Let 's  send  for  Stanton ;  bring  him  here  and  talk  it 
over.'  '  Very  well,'  said  I,  and  a  messenger  was  at 
once  sent.  Stanton  came  immediately,  and  I  told  him 
of  the  conference  between  the  President  and  myself. 
He  agreed  to  accept.  We  walked  to  the  White  House, 
and  the  matter  was  settled. 
"  One  of  the  troubles  in  the  Cabinet  which  brought 
about  this  change  was  that  I  had  recommended  in  my 
annual  report,  in  the  fall  of  1861,  that  the  negroes 
should  be  enlisted  as  soldiers  after  they  left  their  mas 
ters.  This  advanced  step  was  regarded  by  most  of 
the  Cabinet  with  alarm.  Mr.  Lincoln  thought  it  would 
frighten  the  border  States  out  of  the  Union,  and  Mr. 
Seward  and  Mr.  Chase  thought  it  would  never  do 
at  all." 
Just  before  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Cameron,  a  num 
ber  of  influential  Senators  waited  upon  the  President 
and  represented  to  him  that  inasmuch  as  the  Cabinet 
had  not  been  chosen  with  reference  to  the  war  and  had 
more  or  less  lost  the  confidence  of  the  country,  and 
since  the  President  had  decided  to  select  a  new  war 
minister,  they  thought  the  occasion  was  opportune  to 
change  the  whole  seven  Cabinet  ministers.  They  there 
fore  earnestly  advised  him  to  make  a  clean  sweep,  select 
seven  new  men,  and  so  restore  the  waning  confidence  of 
the  country.  The  President  listened  with  patient  cour 
tesy,  and  when  the  Senators  had  concluded,  he  said, 
with  a  characteristic  gleam  of  humor  in  his  eye: 
"  Gentlemen,  your  request  for  a  change  of  the  whole 
Cabinet  because  I  have  made  one  change,  reminds  me 
of  a  story  I  once  heard  in  Illinois  of  a  farmer  who 
was  much  troubled  by  skunks,  ^hey  annoyed  his 
household  at  night,  and  his  wife  insisted  that  he  should
374     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
take  measures  to  get  rid  of  them.  One  moonlight  night 
he  loaded  his  old  shot-gun  and  stationed  himself  in  the 
yard  to  watch  for  the  intruders,  his  wife  remaining  in 
the  house  anxiously  awaiting  the  result.  After  some 
time  she  heard  the  shotgun  go  off,  and  in  a  few  minutes 
the  farmer  entered  the  house.  '  What  luck  had  you?  ' 
said  she.  '  I  hid  myself  behind  the  woodpile,'  said  the 
old  man,  '  with  the  shot-gun  pointed  toward  the  hen 
roost,  and  before  long  there  appeared,  not  one  skunk, 
but  seven.  I  took  aim,  blazed  away,  and  killed  one  — 
and  he  raised  such  a  fearful  smell  I  concluded  it  was 
best  to  let  the  other  six  alone.'  "  The  Senators  re 
tired,  and  nothing  more  was  heard  from  them  about 
Cabinet  reconstruction. 
Of  the  character  and  abilities  of  Secretary  Stanton, 
and  the  relations  between  him  atnd  the  President,  Gen 
eral  Grant  has  admirably  said :  "  I  had  the  fullest  sup 
port  of  the  President  and  Secretary  of  War.  No  Gen 
eral  could  want  better  backing;  for  the  President  was 
a  man  of  great  wisdom  and  moderation,  the  Secretary 
a  man  of  enormous  character  and  will.  Very  often 
where  Lincoln  would  want  to  say  Yes,  his  Secretary 
would  make  him  say  No;  and  more  frequently,  when  the 
Secretary  was  driving  on  in  a  violent  course,  the  Presi 
dent  would  check  him.  United,  Lincoln  and  Stanton 
made  about  as  perfect  a  combination  as  I  believe  could, 
by  any  possibility,  govern  a  great  nation  in  time  of 
war.  .  .  .  The  two  men  were  the  very  opposite  of 
each  other  in  almost  every  particular,  except  that  each 
possessed  great  ability.  Mr.  Lincoln  gained  influence 
over  men  by  making  them  feel  that  it  was  a  pleasure 
to  serve  them.  He  preferred  yielding  his  own  wish  to 
gratify  others,  rather  than  to  insist  upon  having  his 
own  way.  It  distressed  him  to  disappoint  others.  In 
matters  of  public  duty,  however,  he  had  what  he  wished, 
but  in  the  least  offensive  way.  Mr.  Stanton  never  ques-
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     375 
tioned  his  own  authority  to  command,  unless  resisted. 
He  cared  nothing  for  the  feeling  of  others."  In  a  fur 
ther  comparison  of  the  two  men,  General  Grant  said: 
"  Lincoln  was  not  timid,  and  he  was  willing  to  trust  his 
generals  in  making  and  executing  plans.  The  Secre 
tary  [Stanton]  was  very  timid,  and  it  was  impossible 
for  him  to  avoid  interfering  with  the  armies  covering 
the  capital  when  it  was  sought  to  defend  it  by  an 
offensive  movement  against  the  army  guarding  the  Con 
federate  capital.  He  could  see  our  weakness,  but  he 
could  not  see  that  the  enemy  was  in  danger.  The 
enemy  would  not  have  been  in  danger  if  Mr.  Stanton 
had  been  in  the  field." 
With  all  his  force  of  character,  and  his  overbearing 
disposition,  Stanton  did  not  undertake  to  rule  the  Presi 
dent  —  though  this  has  sometimes  been  asserted.  He 
would  frequently  overawe  and  browbeat  others,  but  he 
was  never  imperious  in  dealing  with  Lincoln.  ]VIr. 
Watson,  for  some  time  Assistant  Secretary  of  War, 
and  Mr.  Whiting,  Solicitor  of  the  War  Department, 
with  many  others  in  a  position  to  know,  have  borne 
positive  testimony  to  this  fact.  Hon.  George  W.  Julian, 
a  member  of  the  House  Committee  on  the  Conduct  of 
the  War,  says :  "  On  the  24th  of  March,  1862,  Secre 
tary  Stanton  sent  for  the  Committee  for  the  purpose  of 
having  a  confidential  conference  as  to  military  affairs. 
Stanton  was  thoroughly  discouraged.  He  told  us  the 
President  had  gone  back  to  his  first  love,  General 
McClellan,  and  that  it  was  needless  for  him  or 
for  us  to  labor  with  him."  This  language  clearly 
shows  that  Lincoln,  not  Stanton,  was  the  dominant 
mind. 
Wherever  it  was  possible,  Lincoln  gave  Stanton  his 
own  way,  and  did  not  oppose  him.  But  there  were  occa 
sions  when,  in  a  phrase  used  by  Lincoln  long  before, 
it  was  "  necessary  to  put  the  foot  down  firmly."  Such
376     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
an  occasion  is  described  by  General  J.  B.  Fry,  Provost 
Marshal  of  the  United  States  during  the  war.  An  en 
listment  agent  had  applied  to  the  President  to  have 
certain  credits  of  troops  made  to  his  county,  and  the 
President  promised  him  it  should  be  done.  The  agent 
then  went  to  Secretary  Stanton,  who  flatly  refused  to 
allow  the  credits  as  described.  The  agent  returned  to 
the  President,  who  reiterated  the  order,  but  again  with 
out  effect.  Lincoln  then  went  in  person  to  Stanton's 
office.  General  Fry  was  called  in  by  Stanton  to  state 
the  facts  in  the  case.  After  he  concluded,  Stanton  re 
marked  that  Lincoln  must  see,  in  view  of  such  facts, 
that  his  order  could  not  be  executed.  What  followed 
is  thus  related  by  General  Fry :  "  Lincoln  sat  upon  a 
sofa,  with  his  legs  crossed,  and  did  not  say  a  word 
until  the  Secretary's  last  remark.  Then  he  said,  in  a 
somewhat  positive  tone,  *  Mr.  Secretary,  I  reckon 
you  '11  have  to  execute  the  order.'  Stanton  replied, 
with  asperity,  '  Mr.  President,  I  cannot  do  it.  The 
order  is  an  improper  one,  and  I  cannot  execute  it.' 
Lincoln  fixed  his  eye  upon  Stanton,  and  in  a  firm  voice 
and  with  an  accent  that  clearly  showed  his  determina 
tion,  he  said,  '  Mr.  Secretary,  it  will  have  to  be  done.' 
Stanton  then  realized  that  he  was  overmatched.  He 
had  made  a  square  issue  with  the  President,  and  had 
been  defeated.  Upon  an  intimation  from  him,  I 
withdrew,  and  did  not  witness  his  surrender.  A  few 
minutes  after  I  reached  my  office  I  received  instruc 
tions  from  the  Secretary  to  carry  out  the  President's 
order." 
Vice-President  Wheeler  relates  a  characteristic  inci 
dent  illustrating  the  relations  between  Lincoln  and 
Stanton.  The  President  had  promised  Mr.  Wheeler 
an  appointment  for  an  old  friend  as  army  paymaster, 
stating  that  the  Secretary  of  War  would  instruct  the 
gentleman  to  report  for  duty.  Hearing  nothing  fur-
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     377 
ther  from  the  matter,  Mr.  Wheeler  at  length  called 
upon  the  Secretary  and  reminded  him  of  the  appoint 
ment.  Mr.  Stanton  denied  all  knowledge  of  the  matter, 
but  stated,  in  his  brusque  manner,  that  the  name  would 
be  sent  in,  with  hundreds  of  others,  to  the  Senate  for 
its  consideration.  Mr.  Wheeler  argued  that  his  friend 
had  been  appointed  by  the  Commander-in-chief  of  the 
Army,  and  that  it  was  unjust  to  ask  him  to  wait  for 
the  tardy  action  of  the  Senate  upon  the  nomination, 
and  that  he  was  entitled  to  be  mustered  in  at  once. 
But  all  in  vain;  the  only  reply  that  could  be  got  from 
the  iron  Secretary  was,  "  You  have  my  answer ;  no 
argument."  Mr.  Wheeler  went  to  the  chief  clerk  of  the 
department,  and  asked  for  the  President's  letter  direct 
ing  the  appointment.  Receiving  it,  he  proceeded  to  the 
White  House,  although  it  was  after  executive  hours. 
"  I  can  see  Mr.  Lincoln  now,"  says  Mr.  Wheeler,  "  as 
he  looked  when  I  entered  the  room.  He  wore  a  long 
calico  dressing-gown,  reaching  to  his  heels ;  his  feet 
were  encased  in  a  pair  of  old-fashioned  leathern  slip 
pers,  such  as  we  used  to  find  in  the  old-time  country 
hotels,  and  which  had  evidently  seen  much  service  in 
Springfield.  Above  these  appeared  the  home-made  blue 
woollen  stockings  which  he  wore  at  all  seasons  of  the 
year.  He  was  sitting  in  a  splint  rocking-chair,  with  his 
legs  elevated  and  stretched  across  his  office  table.  He 
greeted  me  warmly.  Apologizing  for  my  intrusion  at 
that  unofficial  hour,  I  told  him  I  had  called  simply  to 
ascertain  which  was  the  paramount  power  in  the  Gov 
ernment,  he  or  the  Secretary  of  War.  Letting  down 
his  legs  and  straightening  himself  up  in  his  chair,  he 
answered,  '  Well,  it  is  generally  supposed  /  am. 
What  's  the  matter?  '  I  then  briefly  recalled  the  facts 
attending  Sabin's  appointment,  when,  without  com 
ment,  he  said,  '  Give  me  my  letter.'  Then,  taking  his 
pen,  he  indorsed  upon  it:
378     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
Let  the  within  named  J.  A.  Sabin  be  mustered  AT 
ONCE.  It  is  due  to  him  and  to  Mr.  W.,  under  the  cir 
cumstances.  A.  LINCOLN." 
Armed  with  this  peremptory  order,  Mr.  Wheeler  called 
on  Stanton  the  next  morning.  The  Secretary  was 
furious.  He  charged  Mr.  Wheeler  with  interfering 
with  his  prerogatives.  Mr.  Wheeler  remarked  that 
he  would  call  the  next  morning  for  the  order  to  muster 
in.  He  called  accordingly,  and,  handing  him  the  order, 
in  a  rage,  Stanton  said,  "  I  hope  I  shall  never  hear  of 
this  matter  again." 
It  is  related  by  Hon.  George  W.  Julian,  already 
quoted,  that  on  a  certain  occasion  a  committee  of 
Western  men,  headed  by  Mr.  Lovejoy,  procured  from 
the  President  an  important  order  looking  to  the  ex 
change  and  transfer  of  Eastern  and  Western  sol 
diers,  with  a  view  to  more  effective  work.  "  Repair 
ing  to  the  office  of  the  Secretary,  Mr.  Lovejoy  ex 
plained  the  scheme,  as  he  had  before  done  to  the  Presi 
dent,  but  was  met  with  a  flat  refusal.  '  But  we  have 
the  President's  order,  sir,'  said  Lovejoy.  'Did  Lin 
coln  give  you  an  order  of  that  kind  ?  '  said  Stanton. 
'  He  did,  sir.'  '  Then  he  is  a  d — d  fool,'  said  the  irate 
Secretary.  '  Do  you  mean  to  say  the  President  is  a 
d — d  fool?  '  asked  Lovejoy,  in  amazement.  'Yes,  sir, 
if  he  gave  you  such  an  order  as  that.'  The  bewil 
dered  Illinoisan  betook  himself  at  once  to  the  Presi 
dent,  and  related  the  result  of  his  conference.  '  Did 
Stanton  say  I  was  a  d — d  fool?  '  asked  Lincoln,  at  the 
close  of  the  recital.  '  He  did,  sir,  and  repeated  it.' 
After  a  moment's  pause,  and  looking  up,  the  Presi 
dent  said,  '  If  Stanton  said  I  was  a  d — d  fool,  then 
/  must  be  one,  for  he  is  nearly  always  right,  and  gen 
erally  says  what  he  means.  /  mil  step  over  and  see 
him.9  "  The  two  men  met,  and  the  matter  was  easily
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     379 
adjusted.  It  was  this  rare  combination  of  good- 
humor  and  firmness  with  an  understanding  of  the 
other's  trials  and  appreciation  of  his  good  qualities, 
that  reduced  the  friction  of  official  life  and  enabled 
Lincoln  and  Stanton  to  work  together,  in  the  main 
harmoniously  and  efficiently,  in  their  great  task  of 
prosecuting  the  war  and  maintaining  the  integrity 
of  the  Union.
CHAPTER     XIX 
Lincoln's  Personal  Attention  to  the  Military  Problems  of  the  War  — 
Efforts  to  Push  forward  the  War  —  Disheartening  Delays  —  Lin 
coln's  Worry  and  Perplexity  —  Brightening  Prospects  —  Union 
Victories  in  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee  —  Proclamation  by  the 
President  —  Lincoln  Wants  to  See  for  Himself  —  Visits  Fortress 
Monroe — Witnesses  an  Attack  on  the  Rebel  Ram  "Merrimac"  — 
The  Capture  of  Norfolk  —  Lincoln's  Account  of  the  Affair  —  Letter 
to  McClellan  —  Lincoln  and  the  Union  Soldiers  — His  Tender  Solici 
tude  for  the  Boys  in  Blue  —  Soldiers  Always  Welcome  at  the  White 
House  —  Pardoning  Condemned  Soldiers  —  Letter  to  a  Bereaved 
Mother  —  The  Case  of  Cyrus  Pringle  —  Lincoln's  Love  of  Soldiers' 
Humor  —  Visiting  the  Soldiers  in  Trenches  and  Hospitals  —  Lincoln 
at  "The  Soldiers'  Rest." 
EARLY  in  1862  Lincoln  began  giving  more  of  his 
personal  attention  to  military  affairs.  He  was 
dissatisfied  with  the  slow  movements  and  small  achieve 
ments  of  our  armies,  and  sought  to  infuse  new  zeal 
and  energy  into  the  Union  commanders.  He  also 
began  a  careful  study  of  the  great  military  problems 
pressing  for  solution ;  and  he  seemed  resolved  to  assume 
the  full  responsibilities  of  his  position,  not  only  as  the 
civil  head  of  the  Government  but  as  the  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  armies  and  navies  of  the  United  States. 
In  this  he  was  influenced  by  no  desire  for  personal 
control  of  the  commanders  in  the  field  or  interference 
with  their  plans;  he  always  preferred  to  leave  them 
the  fullest  liberty  of  action.  But  he  felt  that  the 
situation  demanded  a  single  head,  ready  and  able  to 
take  full  responsibility  for  the  most  important  steps; 
and,  true  to  himself  and  his  habits  of  a  lifetime,  he 
neither  sought  responsibility  nor  flinched  from  it.
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     381 
The  leading  officers  of  the  Union  army  were  mostly 
young  and  inexperienced  men,  and  none  of  them  had 
as  yet  demonstrated  the  capacity  of  a  great  com 
mander.  At  best  it  was  a  process  of  experiment,  to 
see  what  generals  and  what  strategic  movements  were 
most  likely  to  succeed.  In  order  to  be  able  to  judge 
correctly  of  measures  and  men,  Lincoln  undertook  to 
familiarize  himself  with  the  practical  details  of  mili 
tary  affairs  and  operations.  Here  was  developed  a 
new  and  unsuspected  phase  of  his  character.  The 
plain  country  lawyer,  unversed  in  the  art  of  war,  was 
suddenly  transformed  into  the  great  civil  ruler  and 
military  chieftain.  "  He  was  already,"  says  Mr.  A.  G. 
Riddle,  "  one  of  the  wariest,  coolest,  and  most  skilful 
managers  of  men.  A  born  strategist,  he  was  now 
rapidly  mastering  the  great  outline  ideas  of  the  art 
of  war."  "  The  elements  of  selfishness  and  ferocity 
which  are  not  unusual  with  first-class  military  chiefs," 
said  General  Keyes,  a  prominent  officer  of  the  Union 
army,  "  were  wholly  foreign  to  Lincoln's  nature. 
Nevertheless,  there  was  not  one  of  his  most  trusted 
warlike  counselors  in  the  beginning  of  the  war  who 
equaled  him  in  military  sagacity."  His  reliance,  in 
the  new  duties  and  perils  that  confronted  him,  was 
upon  his  simple  common-sense,  his  native  power  of 
judgment  and  discernment.  "  Military  science,"  says 
a  distinguished  officer,  "  is  common-sense  applied  to 
the  affairs  of  war."  While  Lincoln  made  no  claim 
to  technical  knowledge  in  this  sphere,  and  preferred 
to  leave  details  to  his  subordinates,  he  yet  developed 
an  insight  into  military  problems  and  an  understand 
ing  of  practical  operations  in  the  field  which  enabled 
him  not  only  to  approve  or  disapprove  judiciously, 
but  to  direct  and  plan.  A  striking  confirmation  of  this 
is  given  by  Mr.  J.  M.  Winchell,  who  thus  relates  what 
happened  in  a  personal  interview  with  the  President:
382     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
"I  was  accompanied  by  one  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  personal 
friends ;  and  when  we  entered  the  well-known  recep 
tion-room,  a  very  tall,  lanky  man  came  quickly  for 
ward  to  meet  us.  His  manner  seemed  to  me  the  per 
fection  of  courtesy.  I  was  struck  with  the  simplicity, 
kindness,  and  dignity  of  his  deportment,  so  different 
from  the  clownish  manners  with  which  it  was  then 
customary  to  invest  him.  His  face  was  a  pleasant 
surprise,  formed  as  my  expectations  had  been  from 
the  poor  photographs  then  in  vogue,  and  the  general 
belief  in  his  ugliness.  I  remember  thinking  how  much 
better-looking  he  was  than  I  had  anticipated,  and 
wondering  that  anyone  should  consider  him  ugly.  His 
expression  was  grave  and  care-worn,  but  still  enlivened 
with  a  cheerfulness  that  gave  me  instant  hope.  After 
a  brief  interchange  of  commonplaces,  he  entered  on  a 
description  of  the  situation,  giving  the  numbers  of  the 
contending  armies,  their  movements,  and  the  general 
strategical  purposes  which  should  govern  them  both. 
Taking  from  the  wall  a  large  map  of  the  United  States, 
and  laying  it  on  the  table,  he  pointed  out  with  his  long 
finger  the  geographical  features  of  the  vicinity,  clearly 
describing  the  various  movements  so  far  as  known, 
reasoning  rigidly  from  step  to  step,  and  creating  a 
chain  of  probabilities  too  strong  for  serious  dispute. 
His  apparent  knowledge  of  military  science,  and  his 
familiarity  with  the  special  features  of  the  present 
campaign,  were  surprising  in  a  man  who  had  been  all 
his  life  a  civilian,  engrossed  with  politics  and  the 
practise  of  the  law,  and  whose  attention  must  neces 
sarily  be  so  much  occupied  with  the  perplexing  de 
tail  of  duties  incident  to  his  position.  It  was  clear 
that  he  made  the  various  campaigns  of  the  war  a 
subject  of  profound  and  intelligent  study,  forming 
opinions  thereon  as  positive  and  clear  as  those  he 
held  in  regard  to  civil  affairs."
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     383 
Toward  the  end  of  January,  1862,  Lincoln  sought 
to  overcome  the  inertia  that  seemed  settling  upon 
the  Union  forces  by  issuing  the  "  President's  General 
Order,  No.  1,"  directing  that,  on  the  22d  day  of  Febru 
ary  following,  "  a  general  movement  of  the  land  and 
naval  forces  of  the  United  States  "  be  made  against 
the  insurgent  forces,  and  giving  warning  that  "  the 
heads  of  departments,  and  especially  the  Secretaries 
of  War  and  of  the  Navy,  with  all  their  subordinates, 
and  the  General-in-Chief,  with  all  other  commanders 
and  subordinates  of  land  and  naval  forces,  will  sever 
ally  be  held  'to  their  strict  and  full  responsibilities 
for  prompt  execution  of  this  order."  This  order, 
while  it  doubtless  served  to  infuse  activity  into  com 
manders  and  officials,  did  not  result  in  any  substan 
tial  successes  to  our  arms.  The  President,  worn  by 
his  ceaseless  activities  and  anxieties,  seems  to  have 
been  momentarily  disheartened  at  the  situation.  Ad 
miral  Dahlgren,  who  was  in  command  of  the  Washing 
ton  navy-yard  in  1862,  narrates  that  one  day,  at  this 
period,  "  the  President  drove  down  to  see  the  hun- 
dred-and-fifty-pounder  cannon  fired.  For  the  first 
time  I  heard  the  President  speak  of  the  bare  possibility 
of  our  being  two  nations  —  as  if  alluding  to  a  pre 
vious  suggestion.  He  could  not  see  how  the  two  could 
exist  so  near  each  other.  He  was  evidently  much 
worried  at  our  lack  of  military  success,  and  remarked 
that  '  no  one  seemed  ready.9 ' 
It  is  difficult  to  portray  the  worry  and  perplexity 
that  beset  Lincoln's  life,  and  the  incessant  demands 
upon  his  attention,  in  his  efforts  to  familiarize  himself, 
as  he  felt  compelled  to  do,  with  the  practical  opera 
tions  of  the  war.  Admiral  Dahlgren,  who  saw  him 
almost  daily,  relates  that  one  morning  the  President 
sent  for  him,  and  said,  "  Well,  Captain,  here  's  a  letter 
about  some  new  powder."  He  read  the  letter  and
384     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
showed  the  sample  of  powder,  —  adding  that  he  had 
burned  some  of  it  and  it  did  not  seem  a  good  article; 
there  was  too  much  residuum.  "  Now  I  '11  show  you," 
said  he.  So  he  got  a  small  sheet  of  paper  and  placed 
some  of  the  powder  on  it,  then  went  to  the  fire,  and 
with  the  tongs  picked  up  a  coal,  which  he  blew,  with 
his  spectacles  still  on  his  nose;  then  he  clapped  the 
coal  to  the  powder,  and  after  the  explosion,  remarked: 
"  There  is  too  much  left  there."  There  is  something 
almost  grotesque,  but  touching  and  pathetic  as  well, 
in  this  picture  of  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
with  all  his  enormous  cares  and  responsibilities,  en 
gaged  in  so  petty  a  matter  as  testing  a  sample  of 
powder.  And  yet  so  great  was  his  anxiety  for  the 
success  of  the  armies  and  navies  under  his  control 
that  he  wished  to  become  personally  satisfied  as  to 
every  detail.  He  did  not  wish  our  armies  or  our  war- 
vessels  to  lose  battles  on  account  of  bad  powder.  "  At 
another  time,"  Admiral  Dahlgren  has  related,  "  the 
President  sent  for  me  regarding  some  new  invention. 
After  the  agent  of  the  inventor  left,  the  President 
began  on  army  matters.  '  Now,' .  said  he,  '  I  am  to 
have  a  sweat  of  five  or  six  days  '  "  (alluding  to  an 
impending  battle,  for  the  result  of  which  he  was  very 
anxious).  Again:  "The  President  sent  for  me.  Some 
man  in  trouble  about  arms ;  President  holding  a 
breech-loader  in  his  hand.  He  asked  me  about  the 
iron-clads,  and  Charleston."  And  again:  "Went  to 
the  Department  and  found  the  President  there.  He 
looks  thin,  and  is  very  nervous.  Said  they  were  doing 
nothing  at  Charleston,  only  asking  for  one  iron-clad 
after  another.  The  canal  at  Vicksburg  was  of  no 
account,  and  he  wondered  how  any  sensible  man  could 
favor  it.  He  feared  the  favorable  state  of  public 
expectation  would  pass  away  before  anything  was 
done.  Then  he  leveled  a  couple  of  jokes  at  the  doings
EVERY-DAY   LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     385 
at  Vicksburg  and  Charleston.."  No  wonder  the  sym 
pathetic  Dahlgren,  witnessing  the  sufferings  of  the 
tortured  President,  should  exclaim:  "  Poor  gentleman! 
How  thin  and  wasted  he  is !  " 
The  gloomy  outlook  in  the  Spring  of  1862  was 
relieved  by  the  substantial  victories  of  General  Burn- 
side  in  North  Carolina  and  of  General  Grant  in  Ten 
nessee.  The  President  was  cheered  and  elated  by  these 
successes.  It  is  related  that  General  Burnside,  visiting 
Washington  at  this  time,  called  on  the  President,  and 
that  "  the  meeting  was  a  grand  spectacle.  The  two 
stalwart  men  rushed  into  each  other's  arms,  and 
warmly  clasped  each  other  for  some  minutes.  When 
General  Burnside  was  about  to  leave,  the  President 
inquired,  '  Is  there  anything,  my  dear  General,  that 
I  can  do  for  you?  '  '  Yes !  yes ! '  was  the  quick  reply, 
*  and   I   am   glad   you    asked  me    that   question.      My 
three  brigadiers,  you  know;    everything  depended  on 
them,   and   they   did   their   duty   grandly !  —  Oh,   Mr. 
President,  we  owe  so  much  to  them !     I  should  so  much 
like,  when  I  go  back,  to  take  them  their  promotions.' 
*  It   shall   be   done ! '   was   Lincoln's    hearty    response, 
and  on  the  instant  the  promotions  were  ordered,  and 
General    Burnside    had    the    pleasure    of    taking   back 
with  him  to  Foster,  Reno,   and   Parke  their   commis 
sions   as  Major-Generals. " 
Our  brightening  prospects  impelled  the  President  to 
issue,  on  the  10th  of  April,  the  following  proclama 
tion,  breathing  his  deeply  religious  spirit: 
It  has  pleased  Almighty  God  to  vouchsafe  signal  vic 
tories  to  the  land  and  naval  forces  engaged  in  sup 
pressing  an  internal  rebellion,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  avert  from  our  country  the  dangers  of  foreign  in 
tervention  and  invasion.  It  is  therefore  recommended 
to  the  people  of  the  United  States  that  at  their  next 
weekly  assemblages  in  their  accustomed  places  of  pub-
386     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
lie  worship  which  shall  occur  after  the  notice  of  this 
Proclamation  shall  have  been  received,  they  especially 
acknowledge  and  render  thanks  to  our  Heavenly 
Father  for  these  inestimable  blessings;  that  they  then 
and  there  implore  spiritual  consolation  in  behalf  of 
all  those  who  have  been  brought  into  affliction  by  the 
casualties  and  calamities  of  sedition  and  civil  war; 
and  that  they  reverently  invoke  the  Divine  guidance 
for  our  national  counsels,  to  the  end  that  they  may 
speedily  result  in  the  restoration  of  peace,  harmony, 
and  unity  throughout  our  borders,  and  hasten  the  es 
tablishment  of  fraternal  relations  among  all  the  coun 
tries  of  the  earth.  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
Early  in  May  the  President  determined  on  a  per 
sonal  visit  to  Fortress  Monroe,  in  order  to  learn  what 
he  could  from  his  own  observation  of  affairs  in  that 
region.  The  trip  was  a  welcome  respite  from  the 
cares  and  burdens  of  official  life,  and  he  gave  himself 
up,  as  far  as  he  could,  to  its  enjoyment.  The  Secre 
tary  of  War  (Stanton)  and  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  (Chase)  accompanied  the  President.  A 
most  interesting  account  of  the  expedition  is  given  by 
General  Viele,  who  was  a  member  of  the  party  and 
thus  had  an  opportunity  to  observe  Lincoln  closely. 
"  When  on  the  afternoon  of  May  4,"  says  General 
Viele,  "  I  was  requested  by  the  Secretary  of  War  to 
meet  him  within  an  hour  at  the  navy-yard,  with  the 
somewhat  mysterious  caution  to  speak  to  no  one  of 
my  movements,  I  had  no  conception  whatever  of  the 
purpose  or  intention  of  the  meeting.  It  was  quite  dark 
when  I  arrived  there  simultaneously  with  the  Secre 
tary,  who  led  the  way  to  the  wharf  on  the  Potomac, 
to  which  a  steamer  was  moored  that  proved  to  be  a 
revenue  cutter,  the  '  Miami.'  We  went  on  board  and 
proceeded  at  once  to  the  cabin,  where  to  my  surprise 
I  found  the  President  and  Mr.  Chase,  who  had  pre-
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     387 
ceded  us.  The  vessel  immediately  got  under  way  and 
steamed  down  the  Potomac.  .  .  .  After  supper  the 
table  was  cleared,  and  the  remainder  of  the  evening 
was  spent  in  a  general  review  of  the  situation,  which 
lasted  long  into  the  night.  The  positions  of  the  differ 
ent  armies  in  the  field,  the  last  reports  from  their 
several  commanders,  the  probabilities  and  possibilities 
as  they  appeared  to  each  member  of  the  group,  to 
gether  with  many  other  topics,  relevant  and  irrevelant, 
were  discussed,  interspersed  with  the  usual  number  of 
anecdotes  from  the  never-failing  supply  with  which 
the  President's  mind  was  stored.  It  was  a  most  in 
teresting  study  to  see  these  men  relieved  for  the  mo 
ment  from  the  surroundings  of  their  onerous  official 
duties.  The  President,  of  course,  was  the  centre  of 
the  group  —  kind,  genial,  thoughtful,  tender-hearted, 
magnanimous  Abraham  Lincoln !  It  was  difficult  to 
know  him  without  knowing  him  intimately,  for  he  was 
as  guileless  and  single-hearted  as  a  child;  and  no 
man  ever  knew  him  intimately  who  did  not  recognize 
and  admire  his  great  abilities,  both  natural  and  ac 
quired,  his  large-heartedness  and  sincerity  of  purpose. 
.  .  .  He  would  sit  for  hours  during  the  trip,  repeating 
passages  of  Shakespeare's  plays,  page  after  page  of 
Browning,  and  whole  cantos  of  Byron.  His  inex 
haustible  stock  of  anecdotes  gave  to  superficial  minds 
the  impression  that  he  was  not  a  thoughtful  and  re 
flecting  man;  whereas  the  fact  was  directly  the  reverse. 
These  anecdotes  formed  no  more  a  part  of  Mr.  Lin 
coln's  mind  than  a  smile  forms  a  part  of  the  face. 
They  came  unbidden,  and,  like  a  forced  smile,  were 
often  employed  to  conceal  a  depth  of  anxiety  in  his 
own  heart,  and  to  dissipate  the  care  that  weighed 
upon  the  minds  of  his  associates.  Both  Mr.  Chase 
and  Mr.  Stanton  were  under  great  depression  of 
spirits  when  we  started,  and  Mr.  Chase  remarked  with
388     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
a  good  deal  of  seriousness  that  he  had  forgotten  to 
write  a  very  important  letter  before  leaving.  It  was 
too  late  to  remedy  the  omission,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  at 
once  drove  the  thought  of  it  from  his  mind  by  telling 
him  that  a  man  was  sometimes  lucky  in  forgetting  to 
write  a  letter,  for  he  seldom  knew  what  it  contained 
until  it  appeared  again  some  day  to  confront  him  with 
an  indiscreet  word  or  expression;  and  then  he  told 
a  humorous  story  of  a  sad  catastrophe  that  happened 
in  a  family,  which  was  ascribed  to  something  that 
came  in  a  letter  —  a  catastrophe  so  far  beyond  the 
region  of  possibility  that  it  set  us  all  laughing,  and 
Mr.  Chase  lost  his  anxious  look.  That  reminded  Mr. 
Stanton  of  the  dilemma  he  had  been  placed  in,  just 
before  leaving,  by  the  receipt  of  a  telegram  from  Gen 
eral  Mitchell,  who  was  in  Northern  Alabama.  The 
telegram  was  indistinct,  and  could  not  be  clearly 
understood;  there  was  no  time  for  further  explana 
tion,  and  yet  an  immediate  answer  was  required;  so 
the  Secretary  took  the  chances  and  answered  back,  '  All 
right ;  go  ahead.'  '  Now,  Mr.  President,'  said  he,  '  if 
I  have  made  a  mistake,  I  must  countermand  my  in 
structions.'  '  I  suppose  you  meant,'  said  Mr.  Lin 
coln,  '  that  it  was  all  right  if  it  was  good  for  him, 
and  all  wrong  if  it  was  not.  That  reminds  me,'  said 
he,  '  of  a  story  about  a  horse  that  was  sold  at  the 
cross-roads  near  where  I  once  lived.  The  horse  was 
supposed  to  be  fast,  and  quite  a  number  of  people 
were  present  at  the  time  appointed  for  the  sale.  A 
small  boy  was  employed  to  ride  the  horse  backward 
and  forward  to  exhibit  his  points.  One  of  the  would-be 
buyers  followed  the  boy  down  the  road  and  asked  him 
confidentially  if  the  horse  had  a  splint.  '  Well,  mister,' 
said  the  boy,  '  if  it 's  good  for  him  he  's  got  it,  but 
if  it  is  n't  good  for  him  he  has  n't.'  *  And  that  's  the 
position,'  said  the  President,  *  you  seem  to  have  left
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     389 
General  Mitchell  in.  Well,  Stanton,  I  guess  he  '11  come 
out  right;  but  at  any  rate  you  can't  help  him 
now.'  .  .  .  Mr.  Lincoln  always  had  a  pleasant  word 
to  say  the  last  thing  at  night  and  the  first  thing  in 
the  morning.  He  was  always  the  first  one  to  awake, 
although  not  the  first  to  rise.  The  day-time  was 
spent  principally  upon  the  quarter-deck,  and  the 
President  entertained  us  with  numerous  anecdotes  and 
incidents  of  his  life,  of  the  most  interesting  character. 
Few  were  aware  of  the  physical  strength  possessed  by 
Mr.  Lincoln.  In  muscular  power  he  was  one  in  a 
thousand.  One  morning,  while  we  were  sitting  on* 
deck,  he  saw  an  axe  in  a  socket  on  the  bulwarks,  and 
taking  it  up,  he  held  it  at  arm's  length  at  the  extrem 
ity  of  the  helve  with  his  thumb  and  forefinger,  con 
tinuing  to  hold  it  there  for  a  number  of  minutes.  The 
most  powerful  sailors  on  board  tried  in  vain  to  imitate 
him.  Mr.  Lincoln  said  he  could  do  this  when  he  was 
eighteen  years  of  age,  and  had  never  seen  a  day  since 
that  time  when  he  could  not.1 
"  It  was  late  in  the  evening,"  continues  General 
Viele,  "  when  we  arrived  at  Fortress  Monroe.  .  .  . 
Answering  the  hail  of  the  guard-boats,  we  made  a 
landing,  and  the  Secretary  of  War  immediately  des 
patched  a  messenger  for  General  Wool,  the  commander 
1  Lincoln  never  lost  his  interest  in  exhibitions  of  physical  strength,  and 
involuntarily  he  always  compared  its  possessor  with  himself.  On  one 
occasion  —  it  was  in  1859  —  he  was  asked  to  make  an  address  at  the 
State  Fair  of  Wisconsin,  which  was  held  at  Milwaukee.  Among  the 
attractions  was  a  "strong  man"  who  went  through  the  usual  perfor 
mance  of  tossing  iron  balls  and  letting  them  roll  back  down  his  arms, 
lifting  heavy  weights,  etc.  Apparently  Lincoln  had  never  seen  such  a 
combination  of  strength  and  agility  before.  He  was  greatly  interested. 
Every  now  and  then  he  gave  vent  to  the  ejaculation,  "By  George!  By 
George!"  After  the  speech  was  over,  Governor  Hoyt  introduced  him 
to  the  athlete;  and  as  Lincoln  stood  looking  down  at  him  from  his  great 
height,  evidently  pondering  that  one  so  small  could  be  so  strong,  he 
suddenly  gave  utterance  to  one  of  his  quaint  speeches.  "Why,"  he  said, 
"I  could  lick  salt  off  the  top  of  your  hat! "
390     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
of  the  fort;  on  whose  arrival  it  was  decided  to  con 
sult  at  once  with  Admiral  Goldsborough,  the  com 
mander  of  the  fleet,  whose  flag-ship,  the  '  Minnesota,' 
a  superb  model  of  naval  architecture,  lay  a  short  dis 
tance  off  the  shore.  The  result  of  this  conference  was 
a  plan  to  get  up  an  engagement  the  next  day  between 
the  '  Merrimac  '  and  the  '  Monitor,'  so  that  during  the 
fight  the  '  Vanderbilt,'  which  had  been  immensely 
strengthened  for  the  purpose,  might  put  on  all  steam 
and  run  her  down.  Accordingly,  the  next  morning, 
the  President  and  party  went  over  to  the  Rip  Raps 
to  see  the  naval  combat.  The  *  Merrimac  '  moved  out 
of  the  mouth  of  the  Elizabeth  river,  quietly  and 
steadily,  just  as  she  had  come  out  only  a  few  weeks 
before  when  she  had  sunk  the  '  Congress '  and  the 
'  Cumberland.'  She  wore  an  air  of  defiance  and  de 
termination  even  at  that  distance.  The  '  Monitor  ' 
moved  up  and  waited  for  her.  All  the  other  vessels 
got  out  of  the  way  to  give  the  '  Vanderbilt '  and  the 
6  Minnesota  '  room  to  bear  down  upon  the  rebel  terror 
as  soon  as  she  should  clear  the  coast  line.  It  was  a 
calm  Sabbath  morning,  and  the  air  was  still  and  tran 
quil.  Suddenly  the  stillness  was  broken  by  the  cannon 
from  the  vessels  and  the  great  guns  from  the  Rip 
Raps,  that  filled  the  air  with  sulphurous  smoke  and 
a*  terrific  noise  that  reverberated  from  the  fortress 
and  the  opposite  shore  like  thunder.  The  firing  was 
maintained  for  several  hours,  but  all  to  no  purpose; 
the  '  Merrimac  '  moved  sullenly  back  to  her  position. 
It  was  determined  that  night  that  on  the  following 
day  vigorous  offensive  operations  should  be  under 
taken.  The  whole  available  naval  force  was  to  bom 
bard  Sewall's  Point,  and  under  cover  of  the  bombard 
ment  the  available  troops  from  Fortress  Monroe  were 
to  be  landed  at  that  point  and  move  on  Norfolk.  Ac 
cordingly,  the  next  morning  a  tremendous  cannon-
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     391 
ading  of  Sewall's  Point  took  place.  The  wooden  sheds 
at  that  place  were  set  on  fire  and  the  battery  was 
silenced.  The  '  Merrimac,'  coated  with  mail  and  lying 
low  in  the  water,  looked  on  but  took  no  part.  Night 
came  on,  and  the  cannonading  ceased.  It  was  so  evi 
dent  that  the  '  Merrimac  '  intended  to  act  only  on  the 
defensive,  and  that  as  long  as  she  remained  where  she 
was  no  troops  could  be  landed  in  that  vicinity,  that 
they  were  ordered  to  disembark.  That  night  the  Presi 
dent,  with  the  Secretary  of  War  and  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  went  over  on  the  '  Miami '  to  the  Vir 
ginia  shore,  and  by  the  light  of  the  moon  landed  on 
the  beach  and  walked  up  and  down  a  considerable  dis 
tance  to  assure  himself  that  there  could  be  no  mistake 
in  the  matter.  How  little  the  Confederacy  dreamed 
what  a  visitor  it  had  that  night  to  the  '  sacred  soil.'  ' 
The  following  morning  an  advance  was  made  upon 
Norfolk  by  the  route  proposed  by  General  Viele.  The 
attempt  was  successful,  and  before  night  our  forces 
were  in  control  of  the  captured  city.  Some  time  after 
midnight,  as  General  Viele  records,  "  with  a  shock  that 
shook  the  city,  and  with  an  ominous  sound  that  could 
not  be  mistaken,  the  magazine  of  the  '  Merrimac  '  was 
exploded,  the  vessel  having  been  cut  off  from  supplies 
and  deserted  by  the  crew;  and  thus  this  most  formid 
able  engine  of  destruction,  that  had  so  long  been  a 
terror,  not  only  to  Hampton  Roads,  but  to  the  Atlan 
tic  coast,  went  to  her  doom,  a  tragic  and  glorious 
-finale  to  the  trip  of  the  '  Miami.'  " 
Secretary  Chase  had  accompanied  the  expedition 
against  Norfolk,  returning  to  Fortress  Monroe  with 
General  Wool  immediately  after  the  surrender  of  the 
city.  The  scene  which  ensued  on  the  announcement 
of  the  good  tidings  they  brought  back  to  the  anxious 
parties  awaiting  news  of  them  was  thus  described  by 
the  President  himself:  "Chase  and  Stanton  had  ac-
392     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
companied  me  to  Fortress  Monroe.  While  we  were 
there,  an  expedition  was  fitted  out  for  an  attack  on 
Norfolk.  Chase  and  General  Wool  disappeared  about 
the  time  we  began  to  look  for  tidings  of  the  result, 
and  after  vainly  waiting  their  return  till  late  in  the 
evening,  Stanton  and  I  concluded  to  retire.  My  room 
was  on  the  second  floor  of  the  Commandant's  house,  and 
Stanton's  was  below.  The  night  was  very  warm,  — 
the  moon  shining  brightly,  —  and,  too  restless  to  sleep, 
I  sat  for  some  time  by  the  table,  reading.  Suddenly 
hearing  footsteps,  I  looked  out  of  the  window,  and  saw 
two  persons  approaching,  whom  I  knew  by  their  rela 
tive  size  to  be  the  missing  men.  They  came  into  the 
passage,  and  I  heard  them  rap  at  Stanton's  door  and 
tell  him  to  get  up  and  come  upstairs.  A  moment 
afterward  they  entered  my  room.  '  No  time  for  cere 
mony,  Mr.  President,'  said  General  Wool ;  '  Norfolk 
is  ours !  '  Stanton  here  burst  in,  just  out  of  bed,  clad 
in  a  long  night-gown  which  nearly  swept  the  floor, 
his  ear  catching,  as  he  crossed  the  threshold,  Wool's 
last  words.  Perfectly  overjoyed,  he  rushed  at  the 
General,  whom  he  hugged  most  affectionately,  fairly 
lifting  him  from  the  floor  in  his  delight.  The  scene 
altogether  must  have  been  a  comical  one,  though  at 
the  time  we  were  all  too  greatly  excited  to  take  much 
note  of  mere  appearances." 
Lincoln's  general  grasp  of  military  strategy,  and 
his  keen  understanding  of  the  specific  problems  con 
fronting  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  in  the  critical  au 
tumn  of  1862,  are  well  indicated  in  the  following  com 
munication  to  General  McClellan: 
EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON, 
October  13,  1862. 
MY  DEAR  SIR  :  —  You  remember  my  speaking  to  you 
of  what  I  called  your  over-cautiousness.  Are  you  not 
over-cautious  when  you  assume  that  you  cannot  do
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     393 
what  the  enemy  is  constantly  doing?  Should  you  not 
claim  to  be  at  least  his  equal  in  prowess,  and  act  upon 
the  claim? 
As  I  understand,  you  telegraphed  General  Halleck 
that  you  cannot  subsist  your  army  at  Winchester  un 
less  the  railroad  from  Harper's  Ferry  to  that  point 
be  put  in  working  order.  But  the  enemy  does  now 
subsist  his  army  at  Winchester,  at  a  distance  nearly 
twice  as  great  from  railroad  transportation  as  you 
would  have  to  do,  without  the  railroad  last  named. 
He  now  wagons  from  Culpepper  Court-House,  which 
is  just  about  twice  as  far  as  you  would  have  to  do 
from  Harper's  Ferry.  He  is  certainly  not  more  than 
half  as  well  provided  with  wagons  as  you  are.  I 
certainly  should  be  pleased  for  you  to  have  the  ad 
vantage  of  the  railroad  from  Harper's  Ferry  to  Win 
chester;  but  it  wastes  all  the  remainder  of  autumn 
to  give  it  to  you,  and,  in  fact,  ignores  the  question  of 
time,  which  cannot  and  must  not  be  ignored. 
Again,  one  of  the  standard  maxims  of  war,  as  you 
know,  is,  "  to  operate  upon  the  enemy's  communica 
tions  as  much  as  possible,  without  exposing  your  own." 
You  seem  to  act  as  if  this  applies  against  you,  but 
cannot  apply  in  your  favor.  Change  positions  with 
the  enemy,  and  think  you  not  he  would  break  your 
communication  with  Richmond  within  the  next  twenty- 
four  hours?  You  dread  his  going  into  Pennsylvania. 
But  if  he  does  so  in  full  force,  he  gives  up  his  com 
munications  to  you  absolutely,  and  you  have  nothing 
to  do  but  to  follow  and  ruin  him;  if  he  does  so  with 
less  than  full  force,  fall  upon  and  beat  what  is  left 
behind  all  the  easier.  Exclusive  of  the  water  line,  you 
are  now  nearer  Richmond  than  the  enemy  is,  by  the 
route  that  you  can  and  he  must  take.  Why  can  you 
not  reach  there  before  him,  unless  you  admit  that  he 
is  more  than  your  equal  on  the  march?  His  route 
is  the  arc  of  a  circle,  while  yours  is  the  chord.  The 
roads  are  as  good  on  yours  as  on  his. 
You  know  I  desired,  but  did  not  order,  you  to  cross
394     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
the  Potomac  below  instead  of  above  the  Shenandoah 
and  Blue  Ridge.  My  idea  was,  that  this  would  at  once 
menace  the  enemy's  communications,  which  I  would 
seize  if  he  would  permit.  If  he  should  move  north 
ward,  I  would  follow  him  closely,  holding  his  com 
munications.  If  he  should  prevent  our  seizing  his 
communications,  and  move  toward  Richmond,  I  would 
press  closely  to  him,  fight  him  if  a  favorable  oppor 
tunity  should  present,  and  at  least  try  to  beat  him  to 
Richmond  on  the  inside  track.  I  say  "  try,"  for  if  we 
never  try,  we  shall  never  succeed.  If  he  make  a  stand 
at  Winchester,  moving  neither  north  nor  south,  I  would 
fight  him  there,  on  the  idea  that  if  we  cannot  beat 
him  when  he  bears  the  wastage  of  coming  to  us,  we 
never  can  when  we  bear  the  wastage  of  going  to  him. 
This  proposition  is  a  simple  truth,  and  is  too  impor 
tant  to  be  lost  sight  of  for  a  moment.  In  coming 
to  us,  he  tenders  us  an  advantage  which  we  should  not 
waive.  We  should  not  so  operate  as  to  merely  drive 
him  away.  As  we  must  beat  him  somewhere,  or  fail 
finally,  we  can  do  it,  if  at  all,  easier  near  to  us  than 
far  away.  If  we  cannot  beat  the  enemy  where  he  now 
is,  we  never  can,  he  again  being  within  the  intrench- 
ments  of  Richmond.  Recurring  to  the  idea  of  going 
to  Richmond  on  the  inside  track,  the  facility  of  supply 
ing  from  the  side  away  from  the  enemy  is  remarkable, 
as  it  were,  by  the  different  spokes  of  a  wheel,  ex 
tending  from  the  hub  toward  the  rim,  and  this  whether 
you  move  directly  by  the  chord,  or  on  the  inside  arc, 
hugging  the  Blue  Ridge  more  closely.  The  chord-line, 
as  you  see,  carries  you  by  Aldie,  Haymarket,  and 
Fredericksburg,  and  you  see  how  turnpikes,  railroads, 
and  finally  the  Potomac  by  Aquia  Creek,  meet  you  at 
all  points  from  Washington.  The  same,  only  the  lines 
lengthened  a  little,  if  you  press  closer  to  the  Blue  Ridge 
part  of  the  way.  The  gaps  through  the  Blue  Ridge  I 
understand  to  be  about  the  following  distances  from 
Harper's  Ferry,  to  wit :  Vestal's,  five  miles ;  Gregory's, 
thirteen;  Snicker's,  eighteen;  Ashby's,  twenty-eight;
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     395 
Manassas,  thirty-eight ;  Chester,  forty-five ;  and  Thorn 
ton's,  fifty-three.  I  should  think  it  preferable  to  take 
the  route  nearest  the  enemy,  disabling  him  to  make  an 
important  move  without  your  knowledge,  and  compel 
ling  him  to  keep  his  forces  together  for  dread  of  you. 
The  gaps  would  enable  you  to  attack  if  you  should 
wish.  For  a  great  part  of  the  way  you  would  be  prac 
tically  between  the  enemy  and  both  Washington  and 
Richmond,  enabling  us  to  spare  you  the  greatest  num 
ber  of  troops  from  here.  When,  at  length,  running  to 
Richmond  ahead  of  him  enables  him  to  move  this  way, 
if  he  does  so,  turn  and  attack  him  in  the  rear.  But  I 
think  he  should  be  engaged  long  before  such  point  is 
reached.  It  is  all  easy  if  our  troops  march  as  ^well  as 
the  enemy,  and  it  is  unmanly  to  say  they  cannot  do  it. 
This  letter  is  in  no  sense  an  order. 
Yours  truly,     A.  LINCOLN. 
MAJOR-GENERAL  MC€LELLAN. 
Throughout  the  entire  war  President  Lincoln  was 
always  keenly  solicitous  for  the  welfare  of  the  Union 
soldiers.  He  knew  that  upon  them  everything  de 
pended;  and  he  felt  bound  to  them  not  only  by  official 
relations,  but  by  the  tenderer  ties  of  human  interest 
and  love.  In  all  his  proclamations  and  public  utter 
ances  he  gave  the  fullest  credit  to  the  brave  men  in  the 
field,  and  claimed  for  them  the  country's  thanks  and 
gratitude.  His  sympathy  for  the  soldiers  was  as  tender 
as  that  of  a  woman,  and  his  tears  were  ever  ready  to 
start  at  the  mention  of  their  hardships,  their  bravery, 
their  sufferings  and  losses.  Nothing  that  he  could  do 
was  left  undone  to  minister  to  their  comfort  in  field 
or  camp  or  hospital.  His  most  exacting  cares  were 
never  permitted  to  divert  his  thoughts  from  them,  and 
his  anxious  and  tender  sympathy  included  all  whom  they 
held  dear.  Said  Mr.  Riddle,  in  a  speech  in  Congress 
in  1863 :  "  Let  not  the  distant  mother,  who  has  given
396     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
up  a  loved  one  to  fearful  death,  think  that  the  Presi 
dent  does  not  sympathize  with  her  sorrow,  and  would 
not  have  been  glad —  oh,  how  glad  —  to  so  shape  events 
as  to  spare  the  sacrifices.  And  let  not  fathers  and 
mothers  and  wives  anywhere  think  that  as  he  sees  the 
long  blue  regiments  of  brave  ones  marching  away,  step 
ping  to  the  drum-beat,  he  does  not  contemplate  them 
and  feel  his  responsibility  as  he  thinks  how  many  of 
them  shall  go  to  nameless  ^graves,  unmarked  save  by 
the  down-looking  eyes  of  God's  pitying  angels."  The 
feeling  of  the  soldiers  toward  Lincoln  was  one  of  filial 
respect  and  love.  He  was  not  only  the  President,  the 
commander-in-chief  of  all  the  armies  and  navies  of  the 
United  States,  but  their  good  "  Father  Abraham,"  who 
loved  every  man,  even  the  humblest,  that  wore  the 
Union  blue. 
Of  Lincoln's  personal  relations  with  the  soldiers, 
enough  interesting  anecdotes  could  be  collected  to  fill 
a  volume.  He  saw  much  of  them  in  Washington,  as 
they  marched  through  that  city  on  their  way  to  the 
front,  or  returned  on  furlough  or  discharge,  or  filled 
the  overcrowded  hospitals  of  the  capital.  Often  they 
called  upon  him,  singly  or  with  companions ;  and  he 
always  had  for  them  a  word,  however  brief,  of  sym 
pathy  and  cheer.  He  was  always  glad  to  see  them  at 
the  White  House.  They  were  the  one  class  of  visitors 
who  seldom  came  to  ask  for  favors,  and  never  to 
pester  him  with  advice.  It  was  a  real  treat  for  the 
harried  President  to  escape  from  the  politicians  and 
have  a  quiet  talk  with  a  private  soldier.  Among  the 
innumerable  petitioners  for  executive  clemency  or  favor, 
none  were  so  graciously  received  as  those  who  appeared 
in  behalf  of  soldiers.  It  was  half  a  victory  to  say  that 
the  person  for  whom  the  favor  was  desired  was  a 
member  of  the  Union  army. 
As   he   wrote   the  pardon   of   a   young  soldier,   sen-
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     397 
tenced  to  be  shot  for  sleeping  while  on  sentinel  duty, 
the  President  remarked  to  a  friend  standing  by:  "I 
could  not  think  of  going  into  eternity  with  the  blood 
of  that  poor  young  man  on  my  hands.  It  is  not  to 
be  wondered  at  that  a  boy  raised  on  a  farm,  probably 
in  the  habit  of  going  to  bed  at  dark,  should,  when  re 
quired  to  watch,  fall  asleep;  and  I  cannot  consent 
that  he  be  shot  for  such  an  act."  The  youth  thus 
reprieved  was  afterwards  found  among  the  slain  on 
the  field  of  Fredericksburg,  with  a  photograph  of  Lin 
coln,  on  which  he  had  written,  "  God  bless  President 
Lincoln,"  worn  next  his  heart. 
Rev.  Newman  Hall,  of  London,  has  repeated  in  a 
sermon  an  anecdote  told  him  by  a  Union  general. 
"  The  first  week  of  my  command,"  said  the  officer, 
"  there  were  twenty-four  deserters  sentenced  by  court 
martial  to  be  shot,  and  the  warrants  for  their  execu 
tion  were  sent  to  the  President  to  be  signed.  He  re 
fused.  I  went  to  Washington  and  had  an  interview. 
I  said :  '  Mr.  President,  unless  these  men  are  made  an 
example  of,  the  army  itself  is  in  danger.  Mercy  to 
the  few  is  cruelty  to  the  many.'  He  replied :  '  Mr. 
General,  there  are  already  too  many  weeping  widows 
in  the  United  States.  For  God's  sake,  don't  ask  me 
to  add  to  the  number,  for  /  won't  do  it.'  ' 
It  came  to  the  knowledge  of  Lincoln  that  a  widow 
living  in  Boston  —  a  Mrs.  Bixby — had  lost  five  sons 
in  the  service  of  their  country.  Without  delay  he  ad 
dressed  to  the  bereaved  mother  the  following  touching 
note  : 
I  have  been  shown  on  the  file  of  the  War  Department 
a  statement  of  the  Adjutant-General  of  Massachusetts, 
that  you  are  the  mother  of  five  sons  who  have  died 
gloriously  on  the  field  of  battle.  I  feel  how  weak  and 
fruitless  must  be  any  word  of  mine  which  should  at 
tempt  to  beguile  you  from  the  grief  of  a  loss  so  over-
398     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
whelming;  but  I  cannot  refrain  from  tendering  to  you 
the  consolation  that  may  be  found  in  the  thanks  of  the 
Republic  they  died  to  save.  I  pray  that  our  Heavenly 
Father  may  assuage  the  anguish  of  your  bereavements, 
and  leave  only  the  cherished  memory  of  the  loved  and 
lost,  and  the  solemn  pride  that  must  be  yours  to  have 
laid  so  costly  a  sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of  freedom. 
Yours,  very  sincerely  and  respectfully, 
A.  LINCOLN. 
A  case  of  unusual  interest  is  that  of  Cyrus  Pringle, 
a  Vermont  Quaker  who  was  drafted  into  the  military 
service  in  1863,  and  refused  to  serve  on  the  ground 
that  his  religion  and  his  conscience  would  not  permit 
him  to  bear  arms.  His  story,  as  recorded  in  his  diary, 
was  given  to  the  world  after  his  death  ("  Atlantic 
Monthly,"  February,  1913).  In  spite  of  his  protests, 
Pringle  was  taken  South  and  forced  to  wear  a  uniform 
and  carry  a  gun,  though  he  refused  to  use  it  or  even 
to  clean  it.  His  obstinacy,  as  it  was  supposed  to  be, 
caused  him  much  suffering,  sometimes  even  physical 
punishment,  all  of  which  he  bore  patiently,  believing 
that  if  he  was  steadfast  in  his  faith  relief  would  some 
how  come.  It  did  come,  but  not  until  —  after  five 
months  of  hardship  and  distress  of  mind  and  body  — 
his  case,  with  that  of  other  Quakers,  finally  reached 
the  President.  "  I  want  you  to  go  and  tell  Stanton," 
said  Lincoln  to  the  gentleman  who  had  presented  the 
case  to  him,  "  that  it  is  my  wish  that  all  those  young 
men  be  sent  home  at  once."  The  gentleman  went  to 
Stanton  with  the  message,  but  Stanton  was  unwilling 
to  obey  it.  While  they  were  arguing  the  matter,  the 
President  entered  the  room.  "/#  is  my  urgent  wish" 
said  he.  Stanton  yielded,  and  the  unfortunate  Quakers 
were  given  permission  to  return  to  their  homes  —  none 
too  soon  to  save  the  life  of  Pringle,  who  records  in  his 
diary :  "  Upon  my  arrival  in  New  York  I  was  seized
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     399 
with  delirium,  from  which  I  only  recovered  after  many 
weeks,  through  the  mercy  and  favor  of  Him  who  in 
all  this  trial  had  been  our  guide  and  strength  and 
comfort." 
Anything  that  savored  of  the  wit  and  humor  of  the 
soldiers  was  especially  relished  by  Lincoln.  Any  inci 
dent  that  showed  that  "  the  boys  "  were  mirthful  and 
jolly  amidst  their  privations  seemed  to  commend  itself 
to  him.  There  was  a  story  of  a  soldier  in  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac,  carried  to  the  rear  of  battle  with  both 
legs  shot  off,  who,  seeing  a  pie-woman  hovering  about, 
asked,  "  Say,  old  lady,  are  them  pies  sewed  or  pegged?  " 
And  there  was  another  one  of  a  soldier  at  the  battle 
of  Chancellorsville,  whose  regiment,  waiting  to  be  called 
into  the  fight,  was  taking  coffee.  The  hero  of  the  story 
put  to  his  lips  a  crockery  mug  which  he  had  carried, 
with  infinite  care,  through  several  campaigns.  A  stray 
bullet,  just  missing  the  coffee-drinker's  head,  dashed 
the  mug  into  fragments  and  left  only  its  handle  on  his 
finger.  Turning  his  head  in  that  direction,  the  soldier 
angrily  growled,  "  Johnny,  you  can't  do  that  again !  " 
Lincoln,  relating  these  two  stories  together,  said,  "  It 
seems  as  if  neither  death  nor  danger  could  quench  the 
grim  humor  of  the  American  soldier." 
A  juvenile  "  brigadier  "  from  New  York,  with  a  small 
detachment  of  cavalry,  having  imprudently  gone  within 
the  rebel  lines  near  Fairfax  Court  House,  was  captured 
by  "  guerillas."  Upon  the  fact  being  reported  to 
Lincoln,  he  said  that  he  was  very  sorry  to  lose  the 
horses.  "What  do  you  mean?"  inquired  his  inform 
ant.  "Why,"  rejoined  the  President,  "I  can  make  a 
'brigadier'  any  day;  but  those  horses  cost  the  gov 
ernment  a  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars  a  head !  " 
Lincoln  was  especially  fond  of  a  joke  at  the  expense 
of  some  high  military  or  civil  dignitary.  He  was 
intensely  amused  by  a  story  told  by  Secretary  Stanton,
400     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
of  a  trip  made  by  him  and  General  Foster  up  the  Broad 
river  in  North  Carolina,  in  a  tug-boat,  when,  reaching 
our  outposts  on  the  river  bank,  a  Federal  picket  yelled 
out,  "  Who  have  you  got  on  board  that  tug?  "  The 
severe  and  dignified  answer  was,  "  The  Secretary  of 
War  and  Major-General  Foster."  Instantly  the  picket 
roared  back:  "We've  got  Major-Generals  enough  up 
here  —  why  don't  you  bring  us  up  some  hardtack?  " 
On  one  occasion,  when  the  enemy  were  threatening 
the  defenses  of  Washington,  the  President  made  a  per 
sonal  visit  to  the  men  in  the  trenches,  for  the  purpose, 
as  he  stated,  of  "  encouraging  the  boys."  He  walked 
about  among  them,  telling  them  to  hold  their  ground 
and  he  would  soon  give  them  reinforcements.  His 
presence  had  a  most  inspiring  effect,  and  the  trenches 
were  held  by  a  few  hundred  soldiers  of  the  Invalid 
Corps  until  the  promised  help  came  and  the  enemy 
withdrew. 
On  a  visit  to  City  Point,  Lincoln  called  upon  the 
head  surgeon  at  that  place  and  said  he  wished  to  visit 
all  the  hospitals  under  his  charge.  The  surgeon  asked 
if  he  knew  what  he  was  undertaking;  there  were  five 
or  six  thousand  soldiers  at  that  place,  and  it  would 
be  quite  a  tax  upon  his  strength  to  visit  all  the  wards. 
Lincoln  answered,  with  a  smile,  that  he  guessed  he  was 
equal  to  the  task;  at  any  rate  he  would  try,  and  go 
as  far  as  he  could;  he  should  never,  probably,  see  the 
boys  again,  and  he  wanted  them  to  know  that  he  ap 
preciated  what  they  had  done  for  their  country.  Find 
ing  it  useless  to  try  to  dissuade  him,  the  surgeon  began 
his  rounds  with  the  President,  who  walked  from  bed 
to  bed,  extending  his  hand  and  saying  a  few  words  of 
sympathy  to  some,  making  kind  inquiries  of  others, 
and  welcomed  by  all  with  the  heartiest  cordiality.  After 
some  hours  the  tour  of  the  various  hospitals  was  made, 
and  Lincoln  returned  with  the  surgeon  to  his  office.
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     401 
They  had  scarcely  entered,  however,  when  a  messenger 
came  saying  that  one  ward  had  been  overlooked,  and 
"  the  boys  "  wanted  to  see  the  President.  The  sur 
geon,  who  was  thoroughly  tired,  and  knew  Lincoln 
must  be,  tried  to  dissuade  him  from  going;  but  the 
good  man  said  he  must  go  back ;  "  the  boys  "  would  be 
so  disappointed.  So  he  went  with  the  messenger,  ac 
companied  by  the  surgeon,  shook  hands  with  the  grati 
fied  soldiers,  and  then  returned  to  the  office.  The  sur 
geon  expressed  the  fear  that  the  President's  arm  would 
be  lamed  with  so  much  hand-shaking,  saying  that  it 
certainly  must  ache.  Lincoln  smiled,  and  saying  some 
thing  about  his  "  strong  muscles,"  stepped  out  at  the 
open  door,  took  up  a  very  large  heavy  axe  which  lay 
there  by  a  log  of  wood,  and  chopped  vigorously  for  a 
few  moments,  sending  the  chips  flying  in  all  directions ; 
and  then,  pausing,  he  extended  his  right  arm  to  its 
full  length,  holding  the  axe  out  horizontally,  without 
its  even  quivering  as  he  held  it.  Strong  men  who  looked 
on  —  men  accustomed  to  manual  labor  —  could  not 
hold  the  axe  in  that  position  for  a  moment. 
In  summer  Lincoln's  favorite  home  was  at  "  The 
Soldiers'  Rest,"  a  place  a  few  miles  out  of  Washing 
ton,  on  the  Maryland  side,  where  old  and  disabled 
soldiers  of  the  regular  army  found  a  refuge.  It  was 
a  lovely  spot,  situated  on  a  beautifully  wooded  hill, 
reached  by  a  winding  road,  shaded  by  thick-set 
branches.  On  his  way  there  he  often  passed  long  lines 
of  ambulances,  laden  with  the  suffering  victims  of  a 
recent  battle.  A  friend  who  met  him  on  such  an  oc 
casion,  says :  "  When  I  met  the  President,  his  attitude 
and  expression  spoke  the  deepest  sadness.  He  paused, 
and,  pointing  his  hand  towards  the  wounded  men,  he 
said:  'Look  yonder  at  those  poor  fellows.  I  cannot 
bear  it !  This  suffering,  this  loss  of  life,  is  dreadful !  ' 
Recalling  a  letter  he  had  written  years  before  to  a
402     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
suffering  friend  whose  grief  he  had  sought  to  console, 
I  reminded  him  of  the  incident,  and  asked  him :  *  Do 
you  remember  writing  to  your  sorrowing  friend  these 
words :  "  And  this  too  shall  pass  away.  Never  fear. 
Victory  will  come."  '  '  Yes,'  replied  he,  '  victory  will 
come,  but  it  comes  slowly.'  "
CHAPTER    XX 
Lincoln  and  McClellan  —  The  Peninsular  Campaign  of  1862  —  Impa 
tience  with  McClellan's  Delay  —  I^incoln  Defends  McClellan  from 
Unjust  Criticism  —  Some  Harrowing  Experiences  —  McClellan 
Recalled  from  the  Peninsula  —  His  Troops  Given  to  General  Pope 
—  Pope's  Defeat  at  Manassas  —  A  Critical  Situation  —  McClellan 
again  in  Command  —  Lincoln  Takes  the  Responsibility  —  McClel 
lan's  Account  of  his  Reinstatement  —  The  Battle  of  Antietam  — • 
The  President  Vindicated  —  Again  Dissatisfied  with  McClellan  — 
Visits  the  Army  in  the  Field  —  The  President  in  the  Saddle  —  Cor 
respondence  between  Lincoln  and  McClellan  —  McClellan's  Final 
Removal  — •  Lincoln's  Summing-up  of  McClellan  —  McClellan's 
"  Body-guard." 
PRESIDENT  LINCOLN'S  relations  with  no  other 
person  have  been  so  much  discussed  as  those  with 
General  McClellan.  Volumes  have  been  written  on  this 
subject;  many  heated  and  intemperate  words  have  been 
uttered  and  wrong  conclusions  reached.  Whatever  de 
fects  may  have  marked  McClellan's  qualities  as  a  sol 
dier,  he  must  remain  historically  one  of  the  most  con 
spicuous  figures  of  the  war.  He  organized  the  largest 
and  most  important  of  the  Union  armies,  and  was  its 
first  commander  in  the  field.  He  was  one  of  the  two  out 
of  the  five  commanders  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac, 
before  Grant,  who  led  that  army  to  victory;  the  other 
three  having  led  it  only  to  disastrous  defeat.  Great 
things  were  expected  of  him ;  and  when  he  failed  to 
realize  the  extravagant  expectations  of  those  who 
thought  the  war  should  be  ended  within  a  year,  he  re 
ceived  equally  extravagant  condemnation.  It  is  notice 
able  that  this  condemnation  came  chiefly  from  civilians 
—  from  politicians,  from  Congress,  from  the  press : 
not  the  best  judges  of  military  affairs.  His  own  army
404     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
—  the  men  who  were  with  him  on  the  battlefield  and 
risked  their  lives  and  their  cause  under  his  leadership  — 
never  lost  faith  in  him.  Of  all  the  commanders  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  he  was  the  one  most  believed  in 
by  his  troops.  Even  after  his  removal,  at  a  grand  re 
view  of  the  army  by  the  President,  after  the  battle  of 
Fredericksburg,  it  was  not  for  the  new  commander, 
Burnside,  but  the  old  commander,  McClellan,  that  the 
troops  gave  their  heartiest  cheers.  It  is  worth  remem 
bering  also  that  the  war  was  not  ended  until  two  and  a 
half  years  after  McClellan's  retirement,  and  until  trial 
after  trial  had  been  made  and  failure  after  failure  had 
been  met  in  the  effort  to  find  a  successful  leader  for  our 
armies.  The  initial  task  of  organization,  of  creating  a 
great  army  in  the  field,  fell  upon  him  —  a  task  so  well 
performed  that  General  Meade,  his  first  efficient  suc 
cessor,  said,  "  Had  there  been  no  McClellan  there  could 
have  been  no  Grant,  for  the  army  [organization]  made 
no  essential  improvements  under  any  of  his  successors." 
And  Grant,  the  last  and  finally  victorious  of  these  suc 
cessors  —  who  was  at  one  time  criticized  as  being  "  as 
great  a  discouragement  as  McClellan  "  —  recorded  in 
his  Memoirs  the  conviction  (already  quoted  in  these 
pages)  that  the  conditions  under  which  McClellan 
worked  were  fatal  to  success,  and  that  he  him 
self  could  not  have  succeeded  in  his  place  under  those 
conditions. 
It  is  not  in  the  province  of  the  present  narrative 
to  enter  into  a  consideration  of  the  merits  or  demerits 
of  McClellan  as  a  soldier,  but  to  treat  of  his  personal 
relations  with  President  Lincoln.  Between  the  two  men, 
notwithstanding  many  sharp  differences  of  opinion  and 
of  policy,  there  seems  to  have  been  a  feeling  of  warm 
personal  friendship  and  sincere  respect.  Now  that 
both  have  passed  beyond  the  reach  of  earthly  praise 
or  blame,  we  v  may  well  honor  their  memory  and  credit
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     405 
each  with  having  done  the  best  he  could  to  serve  his 
country. 
McClellan  was  appointed  to  the  command  of  the 
Union  armies  upon  the  retirement  of  the  veteran  Gen 
eral  Scott,  in  November  of  1861.  He  had  been  but  a 
captain  in  the  regular  army,  but  his  high  reputation 
and  brilliant  soldierly  qualities  had  led  to  his  being  sent 
abroad  to  study  the  organization  and  movements  of 
European  armies ;  and  this  brought  him  into  promi 
nence  as  a  military  man.  It  was  soon  after  McClellan 
took  command  that  President  Lincoln  began  giving 
close  personal  attention  to  the  direction  of  military 
affairs.  He  formed  a  plan  of  operations  against  the 
Confederate  army  defending  Richmond,  which  differed 
entirely  from  the  plan  proposed  by  McClellan.  The 
President's  plan  was,  in  effect,  to  repeat  the  Bull  Run 
expedition  by  moving  against  the  enemy  in  Virginia  at 
or  near  Manassas.  McClellan  preferred  a  transference 
of  the  army  to  the  region  of  the  lower  Chesapeake, 
thence  moving  up  the  Peninsula  by  the  shortest  land 
route  to  Richmond.  (This  was  a  movement,  it  may 
be  remarked,  which  was  finally  carried  out  before  Rich 
mond  fell  in  1865.)  The  President  discussed  the  rela 
tive  merits  of  the  two  plans  in  the  following  frank  and 
explicit  letter  to  McClellan: 
EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C., 
February  3,  1862. 
MAJOR-GENERAL  MCCLELLAN. 
MY  DEAR  SIR  :  You  and  I  have  distinct  and  different 
plans  for  a  movement  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac; 
yours  to  be  done  by  the  Chesapeake,  up  the  Rappa- 
hannock  to  Urbana,  and  across  to  the  terminus  of  the 
railroad  on  the  York  river;  mine  to  move  directly  to 
a  point  on  the  railroad  southwest  of  Manassas.  If 
you  will  give  me  satisfactory  answers  to  the  following 
questions,  I  shall  gladly  yield  my  plan  to  yours:
406     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
1st.  Does  your  plan  involve  a  greatly  larger  ex 
penditure  of  time  and  money  than  mine? 
2d.  Wherein  is  a  victory  more  certain  by  your  plan 
than  mine? 
3d.  Wherein  is  a  victory  more  valuable  by  your  plan 
than  mine? 
4th.  In  fact,  would  it  not  be  less  valuable  in  this, 
that  it  would  break  no  great  line  of  the  enemy's  com 
munication,  while  mine  would? 
5th.  In  case  of  a  disaster,  would  not  a  retreat  be 
more  difficult  by  your  plan  than  mine? 
Yours  truly,  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
To  this  communication  McClellan  made  an  elaborate 
reply,  discussing  the  situation  very  fully,  and  answer 
ing  the  inquiries  apparently  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
President,  who  consented  to  the  plan  submitted  by 
McClellan  and  concurred  in  by  a  council  of  his  division 
commanders,  by  which  the  base  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  should  be  transferred  from  Washington  to 
the  lower  Chesapeake.  Yet  Lincoln  must  have  had 
misgivings  in  the  matter,  for  some  weeks  later  he  wrote 
to  McClellan:  "  You  will  do  me  the  justice  to  remember 
I  always  insisted  that  going  down  the  bay  in  search  of 
a  field,  instead  of  fighting  at  or  near  Manassas,  was 
only  shifting,  and  not  surmounting,  a  difficulty;  that 
we  would  find  the  same  enemy,  and  the  same  or  equal 
intrenchments,  at  either  place." 
After  the  transfer  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  to 
the  Peninsula  there  was  great  impatience  at  the  delays 
in  the  expected  advance  on  Richmond.  The  President 
shared  this  impatience,  and  his  despatches  to  McClellan 
took  an  urgent  and  imperative  though  always  friendly 
tone.  April  9  he  wrote :  "  Your  despatches,  complain 
ing  that  you  are  not  properly  sustained,  while  they  do 
not  offend  me,  do  pain  me  very  much,  I  suppose  the 
whole  force  which  has  gone  forward  for  you  is  with  you
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     407 
by  this  time.  And,  if  so,  I  think  it  is  the  precise  time 
for  you  to  strike  a  blow.  By  delay,  the  enemy  will 
relatively  gain  upon  you  —  that  is,  he  will  gain  faster 
by  fortifications  and  reinforcements  than  you  can  by 
reinforcements  alone.  And  once  more  let  me  tell  you, 
it  is  indispensable  to  you  that  you  strike  a  blow.  .  .  . 
I  beg  to  assure  you  that  I  have  never  written  to  you 
or  spoken  to  you  in  greater  kindness  of  feeling  than 
now,  nor  with  a  fuller  purpose  to  sustain  you,  so  far 
as,  in  my  most  anxious  judgment,  I  consistently  can. 
But  you  must  act." 
While  Lincoln  was  thus  imperative  toward  Mc- 
Clellan,  he  would  not  permit  him  to  be  unjustly  criti 
cized.  Considerable  ill-feeling  having  been  developed 
between  McClellan  and  Secretary  Stanton,  which  was 
made  worse  by  certain  meddlesome  persons  in  Wash 
ington,  the  President  took  occasion,  at  a  public  meet 
ing,  to  express  his  views  in  these  frank  and  manly 
words :  "  There  has  been  a  very  wide-spread  attempt  to 
have  a  quarrel  between  General  McClellan  and  the 
Secretary  of  War.  Now,  I  occupy  a  position  that  en 
ables  me  to  observe  that  these  two  gentlemen  are  not 
nearly  so  deep  in  the  quarrel  as  some  pretending  to  be 
their  friends.  General  McClellan's  attitude  is  such 
that,  in  the  very  selfishness  of  his  nature,  he  cannot 
but  wish  to  be  successful,  as  I  hope  he  will  be ;  and  the 
Secretary  of  War  is  in  precisely  the  same  situation. 
If  the  military  commanders  in  the  field  cannot  be  suc 
cessful,  not  only  the  Secretary  of  War  but  myself,  for 
the  time  being  the  master  of  them  both,  cannot  but  be 
failures.  I  know  General  McClellan  wishes  to  be  suc 
cessful,  and  I  know  he  does  not  wish  it  any  more  than 
the  Secretary  of  War  wishes  it  for  him,  and  both  of 
them  together  no  more  than  I  wish  it.  Sometimes  we 
have  a  dispute  about  how  many  men  General  McClellan 
has  had,  and  those  who  would  disparage  him  say  he
408     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
has  had  a  very  large  number,  and  those  who  would  dis 
parage  the  Secretary  of  War  insist  that  General  Mc- 
Clellan  has  had  a  very  small  number.  The  basis  for 
this  is,  there  is  always  a  wide  difference,  and  on  this 
occasion  perhaps  a  wider  one  than  usual,  between  the 
grand  total  on  McClellan's  rolls  and  the  men  actually 
fit  for  duty;  and  those  who  would  disparage  him  talk 
of  the  grand  total  on  paper,  and  those  who  would  dis 
parage  the  Secretary  of  War  talk  of  those  at  present 
fit  for  duty.  General  McClellan  has  sometimes  asked 
for  things  that  the  Secretary  of  War  did  not  give  him. 
General  McClellan  is  not  to  blame  for  asking  what  he 
wanted  and  needed,  and  the  Secretary  of  War  is  not  to 
blame  for  not  giving  when  he  had  none  to  give." 
The  summer  of  1862  was  a  sad  one  for  the  country, 
and  peculiarly  sad  for  Lincoln.  The  Army  of  the  Po 
tomac  fought  battle  after  battle,  often  with  temporary 
successes,  but  without  apparent  substantial  results ; 
while  many  thousands  of  our  brave  soldiers  perished 
on  the  field,  or  filled  the  hospitals  from  the  fever- 
swamps  of  the  Chickahominy.  The  terrible  realities 
of  that  dreadful  summer,  and  their  strain  on  Lincoln, 
are  well  shown  in  the  following  incident :  Colonel  Scott, 
of  a  New  Hampshire  regiment,  had  been  ill,  and  his 
wife  nursed  him  in  the  hospital.  After  his  convales 
cence,  he  received  leave  of  absence,  and  started  for 
home ;  but  by  a  steamboat  collision  in  Hampton  Roads, 
his  noble  wife  was  drowned.  Colonel  Scott  reached 
Washington,  and  learning,  a  few  days  later,  of  the 
recovery  of  his  wife's  body,  he  requested  permission  of 
the  Secretary  of  War  to  return  for  it.  A  great  battle 
was  imminent,  and  the  request  was  denied.  Colonel 
Scott  thereupon  sought  the  President.  It  was  Satur 
day  evening;  and  Lincoln,  worn  with  the  cares  and 
anxieties  of  the  week,  sat  alone  in  his  room,  coat  thrown 
off,  and  seemingly  lost  in  thought,  perhaps  pondering
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     409 
the  issue  of  the  coming  battle.  Silently  he  listened  to 
Colonel  Scott's  sad  story;  then,  with  an  unusual  irri 
tation,  which  was  probably  a  part  of  his  excessive 
weariness,  he  exclaimed :  "  Am  I  to  have  no  rest  ?  Is 
there  no  hour  or  spot  when  or  where  I  may  escape  these 
constant  calls?  Why  do  you  follow  me  here  with  such 
business  as  this?  Why  do  you  not  go  to  the  War- 
office,  where  they  have  charge  of  all  this  matter  of 
papers  and  transportation?  "  Colonel  Scott  told  of 
Mr.  Stanton's  refusal;  and  the  President  continued: 
"  Then  probably  you  ought  not  to  go  down  the  river. 
Mr.  Stanton  knows  all  about  the  necessities  of  the 
hour;  he  knows  what  rules  are  necessary,  and  rules 
are  made  to  be  enforced.  It  would  be  wrong  for  me 
to  override  his  rules  and  decisions  in  cases  of  this  kind ; 
it  might  work  disaster  to  important  movements.  And 
then,  you  ought  to  remember  that  I  have  other  duties 
to  attend  to  —  heaven  knows,  enough  for  one  man !  — 
and  I  can  give  no  thought  to  questions  of  this  kind. 
Why  do  you  come  here  to  appeal  to  my  'humanity? 
Don't  you  know  that  we  are  in  the  midst  of  war? 
That  suffering  and  death  press  upon  all  of  us?  That 
works  of  humanity  and  affection,  which  we  would  cheer 
fully  perform  in  days  of  peace,  are  all  trampled  upon 
and  outlawed  by  war?  That  there  is  no  room  left  for 
them?  There  is  but  one  duty  now  —  to  -fight.  The 
only  call  of  humanity  now  is  to  conquer  peace  through 
unrelenting  warfare.  War,  and  war  alone,  is  the  duty 
of  all  of  us.  Your  wife  might  have  trusted  you  to  the 
care  which  the  Government  has  provided  for  its  sick 
soldiers.  At  any  rate,  you  must  not  vex  me  with  your 
family  troubles.  Why,  every  family  in  the  land  is 
crushed  with  sorrow;  but  they  must  not  each  come  to 
me  for  help.  I  have  all  the  burden  I  can  carry.  Go  to 
the  War  Department.  Your  business  belongs  there. 
If  they  cannot  help  you,  then  bear  your  burden,  as
410     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
we  all  must,  until  this  war  is  over.  Everything  must 
yield  to  the  paramount  duty  of  finishing  the  war." 
Colonel  Scott  withdrew,  crushed  and  overwhelmed.  The 
next  morning,  as  he  sat  in  his  hotel  pondering  upon  his 
troubles,  he  heard  a  rap  at  his  door,  arid  opening  it 
found  to  his  surprise  the  President  standing  before 
him.  Grasping  his  hands  impulsively  and  sympa 
thetically,  Lincoln  broke  out :  "  My  dear  Colonel,  I 
was  a  brute  last  night.  I  have  no  excuse  for  my  con 
duct.  Indeed,  I  was  weary  to  the  last  extent;  but  I 
had  no  right  to  treat  a  man  with  rudeness  who  had 
offered  his  life  for  his  country,  much  more  a  man  who 
came  to  me  in  great  affliction.  I  have  had  a  regretful 
night,  and  come  now  to  beg  your  forgiveness."  He 
added  that  he  had  just  seen  Secretary  Stanton,  and 
all  the  details  were  arranged  for  sending  the  Colonel 
down  the  Potomac  and  recovering  the  body ;  then, 
taking  him  in  his  carriage,  he  drove  to  the  steamer's 
wharf,  where,  again  pressing  his  hand,  he  wished  him 
God-speed  on  his  sad  errand. 
Such  were  Lincoln's  harrowing  experiences;  and 
thus  did  his  noble  and  sympathetic  nature  assert  itself 
over  his  momentary  weakness  and  depression. 
In  August  of  1862  General  McClellan  was  ordered 
to  withdraw  his  army  from  the  Peninsula.  "  With  a 
heavy  heart,"  says  McClellan,  "  I  relinquished  the  posi 
tion  gained  at  the  cost  of  so  much  time  and  blood." 
Without  being  removed  from  his  command,  his  troops 
were  taken  away  from  him  and  sent  to  join  General 
Pope,  who  had  been  placed  in  command  of  a  consider 
able  force  in  Virginia,  for  the  purpose  of  trying  the 
President's  favorite  plan  of  an  advance  on  Richmond 
by  way  of  Manassas.  Either  from  a  confusion  of 
orders  or  a  lack  of  zeal  in  executing  them,  the  Union 
forces  failed  to  co-operate ;  and  Pope's  expected  victory 
(Manassas,  August  30)  proved  a  disastrous  and  hu-
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
miliating  defeat.  His  army  was  beaten  and  driven  back 
on  Washington  in  a  rout  little  less  disgraceful  than 
that  of  Bull  Run  a  year  before.  This  battle  came  to 
be  known  as  the  "  Second  Bull  Run." 
Thus  the  autumn  of  1862  set  in  amidst  gloom,  dis 
order,  and  dismay.  Our  armies  in  and  around  the 
national  capital  were  on  the  defensive;  while  the  vic 
torious  Lee,  following  up  his  successes  at  Manassas, 
was  invading  Maryland  and  threatening  Washington 
and  the  North.  The  President  was  anxious;  the  Cabi 
net  and  Congress  were  alarmed.  The  troops  had  lost 
confidence  in  General  Pope,  and  there  was  practically 
no  one  in  chief  command.  The  situation  was  most 
critical;  but  Lincoln  faced  it,  as  he  always  did,  un 
flinchingly.  He  took  what  he  felt  to  be  the  wisest  and 
at  the  same  time  the  most  unpopular  step  possible 
under  the  circumstances:  he  placed  McClellan  in  com 
mand  of  all  the  troops  in  and  around  Washington.  It 
was  a  bold  act,  and  required  no  ordinary  amount  of 
moral  courage  and  self-reliance.  Outside  the  army, 
it  was  about  the  most  unpopular  thing  that  could  have 
been  done.  McClellan  was  disliked  by  all  the  members 
of  the  Cabinet  and  prominent  officials,  and  with  especial 
bitterness  by  Secretary  Stanton.  Secretary  Welles 
speaks,  in  his  Diary,  of  "  Stanton's  implacable  hos 
tility  to  McClellan,"  and  records  his  belief  that  "  Stan- 
ton  is  determined  to  destroy  McClellan."  Welles  relates 
that  on  the  very  day  of  Pope's  defeat  at  Manassas, 
Secretary  Stanton,  accompanied  by  Secretary  Chase, 
called  on  him  and  asked  him  to  join  in  signing  a  com 
munication  to  the  President  demanding  McClellan's 
immediate  dismissal  from  command  of  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac,  saying  all  the  members  of  the  Cabinet 
would  sign  it.  The  document  was  in  Stanton's  hand 
writing.  Welles,  though  far  from  friendly  toward  Mc 
Clellan,  refused  to  sign  the  paper,  and  the  matter  was
412     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
dropped.  Welles  adds  the  comment,  "  There  was  a 
fixed  determination  to  remove,  and,  if  possible,  to  dis 
grace,  McClellan." 
When  it  was  rumored  in  Washington  that  McClellan 
was  to  be  reinstated,  everyone  was  thunderstruck.  A 
Cabinet  meeting  was  held  on  the  second  day  of  Sep 
tember,  at  which  the  President,  without  asking  any 
one's  opinion,  announced  that  he  had  reinstated  Mc 
Clellan.  Regret  and  surprise  were  openly  expressed. 
Mr.  Stanton,  with  some  excitement,  remarked  that  no 
such  order  had  issued  from  the  War  Department.  The 
President  then  said,  with  great  calmness,  "  No,  Mr. 
Secretary,  the  order  was  mine,  and  I  will  be  responsible 
for  it  to  the  country."  He  added,  by  way  of  explana 
tion,  that,  with  a  retreating  and  demoralized  army 
tumbling  in  upon  the  capital,  and  alarm  and  panic  in 
the  community,  something  had  to  be  done,  and  as  there 
did  not  appear  to  be  anyone  else  to  do  it  he  took  the 
responsibility  on  himself.  He  remarked  that  McClellan 
had  the  confidence  of  the  troops  beyond  any  other 
officer,  and  could,  under  the  circumstances,  more 
speedily  and  effectually  reorganize  them  and  put  them 
in  fighting  trim  than  any  other  general.  "  This  is 
what  is  now  wanted  most,"  said  he,  "  and  these  were 
my  reasons  for  placing  McClellan  in  command." 
Perhaps  at  no  other  crisis  of  the  war  did  Lincoln's 
strength  of  character  and  power  of  making  quick  and 
important  decisions  in  the  face  of  general  opposition, 
come  out  more  clearly  than  on  this  occasion.  Secre 
tary  Welles,  who  was  present  at  the  dramatic  and 
stormy  Cabinet  meeting  referred  to,  says :  "  In  stating 
what  he  had  done,  the  President  was  deliberate,  but 
firm  and  decisive.  His  language  and  manner  were  kind 
and  affectionate,  especially  toward  two  of  the  members, 
who  were  greatly  disturbed;  but  every  person  present 
felt  that  he  was  truly  the  chief,  and  every  one  knew
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     413 
his  decision  was  as  fixed  and  unalterable  as  if  given 
out  with  the  imperious  command  and  determined  will 
of  Andrew  Jackson.  A  long  discussion  followed,  clos 
ing  with  acquiescence  in  the  decision  of  the  President. 
In  this  instance  the  President,  unaided  by  others,  put 
forth  with  firmness  and  determination  the  executive 
will  —  the  one-man  power  —  against  the  temporary 
general  sense  of  the  community,  as  well  as  of  his  Cabi 
net,  two  of  whom,  it  has  been  generally  supposed,  had 
with  him  an  influence  almost  as  great  as  the  Secretary 
of  State.  They  had  been  ready  to  make  issue  and  re 
sign  their  places  unless  McClellan  was  dismissed;  but 
knowing  their  opposition,  and  in  spite  of  it  and  of  the 
general  dissatisfaction  in  the  community,  the  President 
had  in  that  perilous  moment  exalted  him  to  new  and 
important  trusts." 
It  appears  from  the  statement  of  General  McClellan, 
made  shortly  before  his  death,  that  on  the  morning  of 
his  reinstatement  (before  the  Cabinet  meeting  just 
described)  the  President  visited  him  at  his  headquar 
ters,  near  Washington,  to  ask  if  he  would  again  assume 
command.  "  While  at  breakfast,  at  an  early  hour," 
says  McClellan,  "  I  received  a  call  from  the  President, 
accompanied  by  General  Halleck.  The  President  in 
formed  me  that  Colonel  Kelton  had  returned  and  repre 
sented  the  condition  of  affairs  as  much  worse  than  I 
had  stated  to  Halleck  on  the  previous  day;  that  there 
were  30,000  stragglers  on  the  roads;  that  the  army 
was  entirely  defeated  and  falling  back  to  Washington 
in  confusion.  He  then  said  that  he  regarded  Washing 
ton  as  lost,  and  asked  me  if  I  would,  under  the  circum 
stances,  consent  to  accept  command  of  all  the  forces. 
Without  a  moment's  hesitation,  and  without  making 
any  conditions  whatever,  I  at  once  said  that  I  would 
accept  the  command,  and  would  stake  my  life  that  I 
would  save  the  city.  Both  the  President  and  Halleck
414     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
again  asserted  their  belief  that  it  was  impossible  to 
save  the  city,  and  I  repeated  my  firm  conviction  that 
I  could  and  would  save  it.  They  then  left,  the  Presi 
dent  verbally  placing  me  in  entire  command  of  the  city 
and  of  the  troops  falling  back  upon  it  from  the  front." 
The  result  of  the  reappointment  of  McClellan  soon 
vindicated  the  wisdom  of  the  step.  He  possessed  the 
confidence  of  the  army  beyond  any  other  general  at 
that  time,  and  was  able  to  inspire  it  with  renewed  hope 
and  courage.  Leaving  Washington  on  the  7th  of 
September,  in  command  of  Pope's  beaten  and  disinte 
grated  forces  which  he  had  to  reorganize  on  the  march, 
he  within  two  weeks  met  the  flushed  and  lately  vic 
torious  troops  of  Lee  and  Jackson  arid  fought  the 
bloody  but  successful  battle  of  Antietam  (September 
17,  1862),  which  compelled  Lee  to  retreat  to  the  south 
ern  side  of  the  Potomac,  and  relieved  Washington  of 
any  immediate  danger. 
After  the  Antietam  campaign,  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  rested  awhile  from  its  exhausting  and  disor 
ganizing  labors.  Supplies  and  reinforcements  were 
necessary  before  resuming  active  operations.  This  de 
lay  gave  rise  to  no  little  dissatisfaction  in  Washington, 
where  a  clamor  arose  that  McClellan  should  have  fol 
lowed  up  his  successes  at  Antietam  by  immediately  pur 
suing  Lee  into  Virginia.  In  this  dissatisfaction  the 
President  shared  to  some  extent.  He  made  a  personal 
visit  to  the  army  for  the  purpose  of  satisfying  himself 
of  its  condition.  Of  this  occasion  McClellan  says: 
"  On  the  first  day  of  October,  his  Excellency  the  Presi 
dent  honored  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  with  a  visit, 
and  remained  several  days,  during  which  he  went 
through  the  different  encampments,  reviewed  the 
troops,  and  went  over  the  battle-field  of  South  Moun 
tain  and  Antietam.  I  had  the  opportunity,  during 
this  visit,  to  describe  to  him  the  operations  of  the  army
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     415 
since  it  left  Washington,  and  gave  him  my  reasons  for 
not  following  the  enemy  after  he  recrossed  the 
Potomac." 
Before  the  grand  review  that  was  to  be  made  by  the 
President,  some  of  McClellan's  staff,  knowing  that  the 
General  was  a  man  of  great  endurance  and  expertness 
in  the  saddle,  laughed  at  the  idea  of  Lincoln's  attempt 
ing  to  keep  up  with  him  in  the  severe  ordeal  of  "  riding 
down  the  lines."  "  They  rather  hinted,"  says  a  nar 
rator,  "  that  the  General  would  move  somewhat  rapidly, 
to  test  Mr.  Lincoln's  capacity  as  a  rider.  There  were 
those  on  the  field,  however,  who  had  seen  Mr.  Lincoln 
in  the  saddle  in  Illinois ;  and  they  were  confident  of  his 
staying  powers.  A  splendid  black  horse,  very  spirited, 
was  selected  for  the  President  to  ride.  When  the  time 
came,  Mr.  Lincoln  walked  up  to  the  animal,  and  the 
instant  he  seized  the  bridle  to  mount,  it  was  evident 
to  horsemen  that  he  (  knew  his  business.'  He  had  the 
animal  in  hand  at  once.  No  sooner  was  he  in  the  saddle 
than  the  coal-black  steed  began  to  prance  and  whirl 
and  dance  as  if  he  was  proud  of  his  burden.  But  the 
President  sat  as  unconcerned  and  fixed  to  the  saddle  as 
if  he  and  the  horse  were  one.  The  test  of  endurance 
soon  came.  McClellan,  with  his  magnificent  staff,  ap 
proached  the  President,  who  joined  them,  and  away 
they  dashed  to  a  distant  part  of  the  field.  The  artil 
lery  began  to  thunder,  the  drums  beat,  and  the  bands 
struck  up  '  Hail  to  the  Chief,'  while  the  troops  cheered. 
Mr.  Lincoln,  holding  the  bridle-rein  in  one  hand,  lifted 
his  tall  hat  from  his  head,  and  much  of  the  time  held 
it  in  the  other  hand.  Grandly  did  Lincoln  receive  the 
salute,  appearing  as  little  disturbed  by  the  dashing 
movements  of  the  proud-spirited  animal  as  if  he  had 
passed  through  such  an  ordeal  with  the  same  creature 
many  times  before.  Next  came  a  further  test  of  en 
durance  —  a  long  dash  over  very  rough  untraveled
416     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
ground,  with  here  and  there  a  ditch  or  a  hole  to  be 
jumped  or  a  siding  to  be  passed.  But  Mr.  Lincoln 
kept  well  up  to  McClellan,  who  made  good  time. 
Finally,  the  '  riding  down  the  lines  '  was  performed, 
amidst  the  flaunting  of  standards,  the  beating  of  drums, 
the  loud  cheering  of  the  men  and  rapid  discharges  of 
artillery,  startling  even  the  best-trained  horses.  Lin 
coln  sat  easily  to  the  end,  when  he  wheeled  his  horse 
into  position  to  witness,  the  vast  columns  march  in 
review.  McClellan  was  surprised  at  so  remarkable  a 
display  of  horsemanship.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  great 
lover  of  the  horse,  and  a  skilled  rider.  His  awkward 
ness  of  form  did  not  show  in  the  saddle.  He  always 
looked  well  when  mounted." 
After  the  President's  return  to  Washington  he  began 
urging  McClellan  to  resume  active  operations ;  desir 
ing  him  to  "  cross  the  Potomac,  and  give  battle  to  the 
enemy  or  drive  him  south."  On  the  13th  of  October 
he  addressed  to  him  the  long  letter  quoted  at  the  end 
of  the  preceding  chapter.  Subsequent  communications 
from  the  President  to  McClellan  showed  more  and  more 
impatience.  On  the  25th  he  telegraphed:  "  I  have  just 
read  your  despatch  about  sore-tongue  and  fatigued 
horses.  Will  you  pardon  me  for  asking  what  the  horses 
of  your  army  have  done  since  the  battle  of  Antietam 
that  fatigues  anything?  "  And  the  next  day,  after 
receiving  McClellan's  answer  to  his  inquiry,  he  re 
sponded:  "  Most  certainly  I  intend  no  injustice  to  any 
one,  and  if  I  have  done  any  I  deeply  regret  it.  To 
be  told,  after  more  than  five  weeks'  total  inaction  of 
the  army,  and  during  which  period  we  had  sent  to 
that  army  every  fresh  horse  we  possibly  could,  amount 
ing  in  the  whole  to  7,918,  that  the  cavalry  horses  were 
too  much  fatigued  to  move,  presented  a  very  cheer 
less,  almost  hopeless,  prospect  for  the  future,  and  it 
may  have  forced  something  of  impatience  into  my
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     417 
despatches.  If  not  recruited  and  rested  then,  when 
could  they  ever  be?  /  suppose  the  river  is  rising,  and 
I  am  glad  to  believe  you  are  crossing."  But  McClellan 
did  not  cross;  his  preparations  for  a  new  campaign 
were  not  yet  complete;  and  the  President,  at  last 
losing  patience,  removed  him  from  command,  and  put 
Burnside  in  his  place,  November  5,  1862.  And  a  dis 
astrous  step  this  proved  to  be.  Burnside  was  under 
peremptory  orders  from  Washington  to  move  imme 
diately  against  the  Confederate  forces.  The  result  was 
the  ill-advised  attack  upon  Fredericksburg  (December 
12,  1862)  and  Burnside's  bloody  repulse.  The  move 
ment  was  made  against  the  judgment  of  the  army  offi 
cers  then,  and  has  been  generally  condemned  by  military 
critics  since.  Secretary  Welles  thus  guardedly  com 
mented  upon  it  in  his  Diary :  "  It  appears  to  me  a 
mistake  to  fight  the  enemy  in  so  strong  a  position. 
They  have  selected  their  own  ground,  and  we  meet 
them  there."  But  it  was  McClellan's  unwillingness  to 
do  the  very  thing  that  Burnside  is  censured  for  having 
done,  and  that  proved  so  overwhelming  a  disaster,  that 
was  the  occasion  for  McClellan's  removal. 
A  good  illustration  of  Lincoln's  disappointed,  per 
haps  unreasonable,  state  of  mind  before  McClellan's 
removal  is  furnished  by  Hon.  O.  M.  Hatch,  a  former 
Secretary  of  State  of  Illinois  and  an  old  friend  of 
Lincoln's.  Mr.  Hatch  relates  that  a  short  time  before 
McClellan's  removal  from  command  he  went  with  Presi 
dent  Lincoln  to  visit  the  army,  still  near  Antietam. 
They  reached  Antietam  late  in  the  afternoon  of  a  very 
hot  day,  and  were  assigned  a  special  tent  for  their 
occupancy  during  the  night.  "  Early  next  morning," 
says  Mr.  Hatch,  "  I  was  awakened  by  Mr.  Lincoln.  It 
was  very  early  —  daylight  was  just  lighting  the  east  — 
the  soldiers  were  all  asleep  in  their  tents.  Scarce  a 
sound  could  be  heard  except  the  notes  of  early  birds,
418     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
and  the  farm-yard  voices  from  distant  farms.  Lincoln 
said  to  me,  '  Come,  Hatch,  I  want  you  to  take  a  walk 
with  me.'  His  tone  was  serious  and  impressive.  I 
arose  without  a  word,  and  as  soon  as  we  were  dressed 
we  left  the  tent  together.  He  led  me  about  the  camp, 
and  then  we  walked  upon  the  surrounding  hills  over 
looking  the  great  city  of  white  tents  and  sleeping  sol 
diers.  Very  little  was  spoken  between  us,  beyond  a  few 
words  as  to  the  pleasantness  of  the  morning  or  similar 
casual  observations.  Lincoln  seemed  to  be  peculiarly 
serious,  and  his  quiet,  abstract  way  affected  me  also. 
It  did  not  seem  a  time  to  speak.  We  walked  slowly 
and  quietly,  meeting  here  and  there  a  guard,  our 
thoughts  leading  us  to  reflect  on  that  wonderful  situa 
tion.  A  nation  in  peril  —  the  whole  world  looking 
at  America —  a  million  men  in  arms  —  the  whole  ma 
chinery  of  war  engaged  throughout  the  country,  while 
I  stood  by  that  kind-hearted,  simple-minded  man  who 
might  be  regarded  as  the  Director-General,  looking  at 
the  beautiful  sunrise  and  the  magnificent  scene  before 
us.  Nothing  was  to  be  said,  nothing  needed  to  be 
said.  Finally,  reaching  a  commanding  point  where 
almost  that  entire  camp  could  be  seen  —  the  men  were 
just  beginning  their  morning  duties,  and  evidences  of 
life  and  activity  were  becoming  apparent  —  we  invol 
untarily  stopped.  The  President,  waving  his  hand 
towards  the  scene  before  us,  and  leaning  towards  me, 
said  in  an  almost  whispering  voice :  '  Hatch  —  Hatch, 
what  is  all  this?  '  '  Why,  Mr.  Lincoln,5  said  I,  '  this 
is  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.'  He  hesitated  a  moment, 
and  then,  straightening  up,  said  in  a  louder  tone :  '  No, 
Hatch,  no.  This  is  General  McClellari 's  body-guard.' 
Nothing  more  was  said.  We  walked  to  our  tent,  and 
the  subject  was  not  alluded  to  again."
CHAPTER    XXI 
Lincoln  and  Slavery  —  Plan  for  Gradual  Emancipation  —  Anti-slavery 
Legislation  in  1862  —  Pressure  Brought  to  Bear  on  the  Executive  — 
The  Delegation  of  Quakers  —  A  Visit  from  Chicago  Clergymen — • 
Interview  between  Lincoln  and  C  banning  —  Lincoln  and  Horace 
Greeley  —  The  President's  Answer  to  "The  Prayer  of  Twenty  Mil 
lions  of  People"  —  Conference  between  Lincoln  and  Greeley — • 
Emancipation  Resolved  on  —  The  Preliminary  Proclamation  — 
Lincoln's  Account  of  It  —  Preparing  for  the  Final  Act  —  The  Eman 
cipation  Proclamation  —  Particulars  of  the  Great  Document  — 
Fate  of  the  Original  Draft  —  Lincoln's  Outline  of  his  Course  and 
Views  regarding  Slavery. 
THE  emancipation  of  slaves  in  America  —  the 
crowning  act  of  Lincoln's  eventful  career  and 
the  one  with  which  his  fame  is  most  indissolubly  linked 
—  is  a  subject  of  supreme  interest  in  a  study  of  his 
life- and  character.  For  this  great  act  all  his  previous 
life  and  training  had  been  but  a  preparation.  From 
the  first  awakening  of  his  convictions  of  the  moral 
wrong  of  human  slavery,  through  all  his  public  and 
private  utterances,  may  be  traced  one  logical  and  con 
sistent  development  of  the  principles  which  at  last 
found  sublime  expression  in  the  Proclamation  of  Eman 
cipation.  In  this,  as  always,  he  was  true  to  his  own 
inner  promptings.  He  would  not  be  hurried  or  wor 
ried  or  badgered  into  premature  and  impracticable 
measures.  He  bided  his  time;  and  when  that  time 
came  the  deed  was  done,  unalterably  and  irrevocably: 
approved  by  the  logic  of  events,  and  by  the  enlightened 
conscience  of  the  world. 
The  final  Emancipation  Proclamation  was  issued  on 
the  first  day  of  January,  1863.     The  various  official
420     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
measures  that  preceded  it  may  be  briefly  sketched,  to 
gether  with  closely  related  incidents.  As  early  as  the 
autumn  of  1861  the  problem  of  the  relation  of  the 
war  to  slavery  was  brought  forcibly  to  the  President's 
attention  by  the  action  of  General  J.  C.  Fremont,  the 
Union  commander  in  Missouri,  who  issued  an  order 
declaring  the  slaves  of  rebels  in  his  department  free. 
The  order  was  premature  and  unauthorized,  and  the 
President  promptly  annulled  it.  General  Fremont  was 
thus,  in  a  sense,  the  pioneer  in  military  emancipation; 
and  he  lived  to  see  the  policy  proposed  by  him  carried 
into  practical  operation  by  all  our  armies.  Lincoln 
afterwards  said :  "  I  have  great  respect  for  General 
Fremont  and  his  abilities,  but  the  fact  is  that  the 
pioneer  in  any  movement  is  not  generally  the  best  man 
to  carry  that  movement  to  a  successful  issue.  It  was 
so  in  old  times ;  Moses  began  the  emancipation  of  the 
Jews,  but  did  n't  take  Israel  to  the  Promised  Land 
after  all.  He  had  to  make  way  for  Joshua  to  complete 
the  work.  It  looks  as  if  the  first  reformer  of  a  thing 
has  to  meet  such  a  hard  opposition  and  gets  so  bat 
tered  and  bespattered  that  afterward  when  people  find 
they  have  to  accept  his  reform  they  will  accept  it  more 
easily  from  another  man." 
Lincoln  at  first  favored  a  policy  of  gradual  emanci 
pation.  In  a  special  message  to  Congress,  on  the  6th 
of  March,  1862,  he  proposed  such  a  plan  for  the  aboli 
tion  of  slavery.  "  In  my  judgment,"  he  remarked, 
"  gradual,  and  not  sudden,  emancipation  is  better  for 
all."  He  suggested  to  Congress  the  adoption  of  a  joint 
resolution  declaring  "  that  the  United  States  ought  to 
co-operate  with  any  State  which  may  adopt  a  gradual 
abolition  of  slavery,  giving  to  such  State  pecuniary  aid 
to  compensate  for  the  inconvenience,  public  and  pri 
vate,  produced  by  such  change  of  system."  In  con 
clusion  he  urged :  "  In  full  view  of  my  great  responsi-
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     421 
bilitj  to  my  God  and  to  my  country,  I  earnestly  beg 
the  attention  of  Congress  and  the  people  to  this 
subject." 
On  the  16th  of  April  of  this  year,  Congress  passed 
a  bill  abolishing  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  — 
a  measure  for  which  Lincoln  had  himself  introduced  a 
bill  while  a  member  of  Congress.  In  confirming  the 
act  as  President,  he  remarked  privately :  "  Little  did 
I  dream  in  1849,  when  as  a  member  of  Congress  I 
proposed  to  abolish  slavery  at  this  capital,  and  could 
scarcely  get  a  hearing  for  the  proposition,  that  it  would 
be  so  soon  accomplished." 
Emancipation  measures  moved  rapidly  in  1862.  On 
June  19  Congress  enacted  a  measure  prohibiting  slavery 
forever  in  all  present  and  future  territories  of  the 
United  States.  July  17  a  law  was  passed  authorizing 
the  employment  of  negroes  as  soldiers,  and  conferring 
freedom  on  all  who  should  render  military  service,  and 
on  the  families  of  all  such  as  belonged  to  disloyal 
owners.  Two  days  later,  in  a  conference  appointed 
by  him  at  the  Executive  Mansion,  the  President  sub 
mitted  to  the  members  of  Congress  from  the  Border 
States  a  written  appeal,  in.  which  he  said : 
Believing  that  you,  in  the  border  States,  hold  more 
power  for  good  than  any  other  equal  number  of  mem 
bers,  I  feel  it  a  duty  which  I  cannot  justifiably  waive, 
to  make  this  appeal  to  you.  ...  I  intend  no  reproach 
or  complaint  when  I  assure  you  that,  in  my  opinion, 
if  you  all  had  voted  for  the  resolution  in  the  gradual 
emancipation  message  of  last  March,  the  war  would 
now  be  substantially  ended.  And  the  plan  therein  pro 
posed  is  yet  one  of  the  most  potent  and  swift  means 
of  ending  it.  Let  the  States  which  are  in  rebellion  see 
definitely  and  certainly  that  in  no  event  will  the  States 
you  represent  ever  join  their  proposed  confederacy,  and 
they  cannot  much  longer  maintain  the  contest.  ...  If
422     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
the  war  continues  long,  as  it  must  if  the  object  be  not 
sooner  attained,  the  institution  in  your  States  will  be 
extinguished  by  mere  friction  and  abrasion,  by  the  mere 
incidents  of  the  war.  It  will  be  gone,  and  you  will 
have  nothing  valuable  in  lieu  of  it.  Much  of  its  value 
is  gone  already.  How  much  better  for  you  and  for 
your  people  to  take  the  step  which  at  once  shortens 
the  war  and  secures  substantial  compensation  for  that 
which  is  sure  to  be  wholly  lost  in  any  other  event !  How 
much  better  to  thus  save  the  money  which  else  we  sink 
forever  in  the  war!  How  much  better  to  do  it  while 
we  can,  lest  the  war  ere  long  render  us  pecuniarily 
unable  to  do  it !  How  much  better  for  you  as  seller, 
and  the  nation  as  buyer,  to  sell  out  and  buy  out  that 
without  which  the  war  could  never  have  been,  than  to 
sink  both  the  thing  to  be  sold  and  the  price  of  it  in 
cutting  one  another's  throats !  ...  I  do  not  speak  of 
emancipation  at  once,  but  of  a  decision  to  emancipate 
gradually.  .  .  .  Upon  these  considerations  I  have  again 
begged  your  attention  to  the  message  of  March  last. 
Before  leaving  the  capital,  consider  and  discuss  it 
among  yourselves.  You  are  patriots  and  statesmen, 
and  as  such  I  pray  you  consider  this  proposition,  and  at 
the  least  commend  it  to  the  consideration  of  your  States 
and  people.  As  you  would  perpetuate  popular  govern 
ment  for  the  best  people  in  the  world,  I  beseech  you 
that  you  do  in  nowise  omit  this.  Our  common  country 
is  in  great  peril,  demanding  the  loftiest  views  and 
boldest  action  to  bring  a  speedy  relief.  Once  relieved, 
its  form  of  government  is  saved  to  the  world,  its  be 
loved  history  and  cherished  memories  are  vindicated, 
and  its  happy  future  fully  assured  and  rendered  in 
conceivably  grand.  To  you,  more  than  any  others,  the 
privilege  is  given  to  assure  that  happiness  and  swell 
that  grandeur,  and  to  link  your  own  names  therewith 
forever. 
In  an  interview  with  Mr.  Lovejoy  and  Mr.  Arnold, 
of  Illinois,  the  day  following  this  conference,  Lincoln
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     423 
exclaimed :  "  Oh,  how  I  wish  the  border  States  would 
accept  my  proposition!  Then  you,  Lovejoy,  and  you, 
Arnold,  and  all  of  us,  would  not  have  lived  in  vain! 
The  labor  of  your  life,  Lovejoy,  would  be  crowned  with 
success.  You  would  live  to  see  the  end  of  slavery." 
The  first  occasion  on  which  the  President  definitely 
discussed  emancipation  plans  with  members  of  his 
Cabinet,  according  to  Secretary  Welles,  was  on  the 
13th  of  July,  1862.  On  that  day,  says  Mr.  Welles, 
"  President  Lincoln  invited  me  to  accompany  him  in 
his  carriage  to  the  funeral  of  an  infant  child  of  Mr. 
Stanton.  Secretary  Seward  and  Mrs.  Frederick  Seward 
were  also  in  the  carriage.  Mr.  Stanton  occupied  at 
that  time  for  a  summer  residence  the  house  of  a  naval 
officer,  some  two  or  three  miles  west  or  northwest  of 
Georgetown.  It  was  on  this  occasion  and  on  this  ride 
that  he  first  mentioned  to  Mr.  Seward  and  myself  the 
subject  of  emancipating  the  slaves  by  proclamation  in 
case  the  Rebels  did  not  cease  to  persist  in  their  war 
on  the  Government  and  the  Union,  of  which  he  saw 
no  evidence.  He  dwelt  earnestly  on  the  gravity,  im 
portance,  and  delicacy  of  the  movement;  said  he  had 
given  it  much  thought,  and  had  about  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  it  was  a  military  necessity  absolutely 
essential  for  the  salvation  of  the  Union ;  that  we  must 
free  the  slaves  or  be  ourselves  subdued,  etc.  .  .  .  This 
was,  the  President  said,  the  first  occasion  when  he  had 
mentioned  the  subject  to  anyone,  and  wished  us  to 
frankly  state  how  the  proposition  struck  us.  Mr. 
Seward  said  the  subject  involved  consequences  so  vast 
and  momentous  that  he  should  wish  to  bestow  on  it 
mature  reflection  before  giving  a  decisive  answer;  but 
his  present  opinion  inclined  to  the  measure  as  justifi 
able,  and  perhaps  he  might  say  expedient  and  neces 
sary.  These  were  also  my  views.  Two  or  three  times 
on  that  ride  the  subject,  which  was  of  course  an  ab-
424     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
sorbing  one  for  each  and  all,  was  adverted  to;  and 
before  separating,  the  President  desired  us  to  give  the 
question  special  and  deliberate  attention,  for  he  was 
earnest  in  the  conviction  that  something  must  be  done. 
It  was  a  new  departure  for  the  President,  for  until 
this  time,  in  all  our  previous  interviews,  whenever  the 
question  of  emancipation  or  the  mitigation  of  slavery 
had  been  in  any  way  alluded  to,  he  had  been  prompt 
and  emphatic  in  denouncing  any  interference  by  the 
General  Government  with  the  subject.  This  was,  I 
think,  the  sentiment  of  every  member  of  the  Cabinet, 
all  of  whom,  including  the  President,  considered  it  a 
local,  domestic  question,  appertaining  to  the  States  re 
spectively,  who  had  never  parted  with  their  authority 
over  it.  But  the  reverses  before  Richmond,  and  the 
formidable  power  and  dimensions  of  the  insurrection, 
which  extended  through  all  the  Slave  States,  and  had 
combined  most  of  them  in  a  confederacy  to  destroy 
the  Union,  impelled  the  Administration  to  adopt  ex 
traordinary  measures  to  preserve  the  national  existence. 
The  slaves,  if  not  armed  and  disciplined,  were  in  the 
service  of  those  who  were,  not  only  as  field  laborers 
and  producers,  but  thousands  of  them  were  in  attend 
ance  upon  the  armies  in  the  field,  employed  as  waiters 
and  teamsters,  and  the  fortifications  and  intrenchments 
were  constructed  by  them." 
It  has  been  shown  again  and  again,  by  the  words  of 
Lincoln  and  by  the  testimony  of  his  friends,  that  he 
heartily  detested  the  practice  of  slavery,  and  would 
joyfully  have  set  every  bondman  free.  Before  his 
nomination  for  the  Presidency  —  indeed,  from  the  very 
beginning  of  his  public  life  —  he  had  repeatedly  put 
himself  on  record  as  opposed  to  slavery,  but  perhaps 
nowhere  more  tersely  and  unequivocally  than  in  these 
words :  "  There  is  no  reason  in  the  world  why  the  negro 
is  not  entitled  to  all  the  natural  rights  enumerated  in
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     425 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  —  the  right  to  life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  /  hold  that  he 
is  as  much  entitled  to  them  as  the  white  man."  But  his 
respect  for  the  laws  of  the  land  deterred  him  from 
measures  that  might  seem  of  doubtful  constitutionality, 
and  he  waited  patiently  until  the  right  hour  had  struck 
before  he  issued  the  edict  of  emancipation  so  eagerly 
demanded  by  a  large  class  of  earnest  and  loyal  people 
at  the  North.  Many  of  these  people,  misuriderstand- 
ing  his  views  and  intentions,  were  very  impatient ;  and 
their  criticisms  and  expostulations  were  a  constant 
burden  to  the  sorely  tried  Executive. 
In  June  of  this  year  (1862)  the  President  was  waited 
on  by  a  deputation  of  Quakers,  or  Friends,  fifteen  or 
twenty  in  number,  who  had  been  charged  by  the 
Yearly  Meeting  of  their  association  to  present  a 
"minute"  to  the  President  on  the  subject  of  slavery 
and  the  duty  of  immediate  emancipation.  The  visit 
of  these  excellent  people  was  not  altogether  timely. 
Bad  news  had  been  received  from  McClellan's  army  on 
the  Peninsula,  and  Lincoln  was  harassed  with  cares 
and  anxieties.  But  he  gave  the  deputation  a  cordial 
though  brief  greeting,  as  he  announced  that  he  was 
ready  to  hear  from  the  Friends.  In  the  reading  of  the 
minute,  it  appeared  that  the  document  took  occasion 
to  remind  the  President  that,  years  before,  he  had 
said,  "  I  believe  that  this  Government  cannot  perma 
nently  endure  half  slave  and  half  free,"  and  from  this 
was  implied  a  suggestion  of  his  failure  to  perform  his 
duty  as  he  had  then  seen  it.  Lincoln  was  decidedly 
displeased  with  this  criticism ;  and  after  the  document 
had  been  read  to  the  close,  he  received  it  from  the 
speaker,  then  drawing  himself  up,  he  said,  with  un 
usual  severity  of  manner:  "  It  is  true  that  on  the  17th 
of  June,  1858,  I  said,  *  I  believe  that  this  Government 
cannot  permanently  endure  half  slave  and  half  free,'
426     EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN 
but  I  said  it  in  connection  with  other  things  from  which 
it  should  not  have  been  separated  in  an  address  dis 
cussing  moral  obligations;  for  this  is  a  case  in  which 
the  repetition  of  half  a  truth,  in  connection  with  the 
remarks  just  read,  produces  the  effect  of  a  whole  false 
hood.  What  I  did  say  was,  '  If  we  could  first  know 
jwliere  we  are,  and  whither  we  are  tending,  we  could 
jbetter  judge  what  to  do  and  how  to  do  it.  We  are 
now  far  into  the  fifth  year  since  a  policy  was  initiated 
jrith  the  avowed  object  and  confident  promise  of  put 
ting  an  end  to  the  slavery  agitation.  Under  the  opera 
tion  of  that  policy  this  agitation  has  not  only  not 
ceased  but  has  constantly  augmented.  In  my  opinion 
it  will  not  cease  until  a  crisis  shall  have  been  reached 
and  passed.  "  A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot 
stand."  I  believe  that  this  Government  cannot  per 
manently  endure  half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not 
expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved  —  I  do  not  expect  the 
house  to  fall  —  but  I  do  expect  that  it  will  cease  to 
be  divided.  It  will  become  all  one  thing  or  all  the  other. 
Either  the  opponents  of  slavery  will  arrest  the  further 
spread  of  it,  and  place  it  where  the  public  mind  shall 
rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate 
extinction,  or  its  advocates  will  push  it  forward  till  it 
shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all  the  States,  old  as  well 
as  new,  North  as  well  as  South.'  Take  this  statement 
as  a  whole,  and  it  does  not  furnish  a  text  for  the 
homily  to  which  this  audience  has  listened." 
As  Lincoln  concluded,  he  was  turning  away,  when 
another  member  of  the  delegation,  a  woman,  requested 
permission  to  detain  him  with  a  few  words.  Somewhat 
impatiently  he  said,  "  I  will  hear  the  Friend."  Her 
remarks  were  a  plea  for  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves, 
urging  that  he  was  the  appointed  minister  of  the  Lord 
to  do  the  work,  and  enforcing  her  argument  by  many 
Scriptural  citations.  At  the  close  he  asked,  "  Has  the
EVERY-DAY    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN     427 
Friend  finished?  "  and  receiving  an  affirmative  answer, 
he  said :  "  I  have  neither  time  nor  disposition  to  enter 
into  discussion  with  the  Friend,  and  end  this  occa 
sion  by  suggesting  for  her  consideration  the  question 
whether,  if  it  be  true  that  the  Lord  has  appointed  me 
to  do  the  work  she  has  indicated,  it  is  not  probable 
that  He  would  have  communicated  knowledge  of  the 
fact  to  me  as  well  as  to  her?  " 
Something  like  the  same  views  were  expressed  by 
Lincoln,  on  another  occasion,  when,  in  response  to  a 
memorial  presented  by  a  delegation  representing  most 
of  the  religious  organizations  of  Chicago,  he  said,  re 
spectfully  but  pointedly :  "  I  am  approached  with  the 
most  opposite  opinions  and  advice,  and  by  religious 
men  who  are  certain  they  represent  the  Divine  Will. 
...  I  hope  it  will  not  be  irreverent  in  me  to  say  that 
if  it  be  probable  that  God  would  reveal  His  will  to 
others,  on  a  point  so  closely  connected  with  my  duty,  it 
might  be  supposed  he  would  reveal  it  directly  to  me. 
...  If  I  can  learn  His  will,  I  will  do  it.  These,  how 
ever,  are  not  the  days  of  miracles,  and  I  suppose  I  am 
not  to  expect  a  direct  revelation.  I  must  study  the 
plain  physical  facts  of  the  case,  and  learn  what  appears 
to  be  wise  and  right.  .  .  .  Do  not  misunderstand  me 
because  I  have  mentioned  these  objections.  They  indi 
cate  the  difficulties  which  have  thus  far  prevented  my 
action  in  some  such  way  as  you  desire.  I  have  not 
decided  against  a  proclamation  of  emancipation,  but 
hold  the  matter  in  advisement.  The  subject  is  in  my 
mind  by  day  and  by  night.  Whatever  shall  appear 
to  be  God's  will,  I  will  do." 
About  this  period  the  President  had  a  very  interest 
ing  conversation  with  Rev.  William  Henry  Channing, 
in  which  the  question  of  emancipation  was  frankly  dis 
cussed.  Mr.  M.  D.  Conway,  who  was  present  at  the 
interview,  says :  "  Mr.  Channing  having  begun  by  ex-