Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1895-02-16

house as Seward was its bette noir Lin
coin demanded and received Mr.. Sew
ard s resignation and forthwith sent for
Mr.. Chase, whom he also asked to resign
and in written form which he himself
should dictate. The putative reason as
signed by the great financial secretary
Nc" Mr.. Stewards resignation and his
unwillingness to serve in an admins
tration with that strong right arm lop-
ped off. The two papers were shown to
Morton, Wade and others of the aston
ished coteric, and rather than have Chase
60 they expressed their willingness to
yield the point as to Seward. So Mr..
Lincoln's craft disarmed their obstinacy
and saved the integrity Of his cabinet
without giving offense to the "conscript
fathers, so suavely hoodwinked by this
master hand.
The presidential campaign of 1864
affords an illustration of the cunning in
practical politics which supplemented
the loftier aspects of the statesman and
the patriot. To make sure of Pennsylva-
MIA, which was the native state of Nc
full, was a grave problem. Ata conclave
held in Washington the president end
ed discussion with the following die
tum: "Let the right men, soldiers hot
from the battlefield and full of enthusi-
asm, be furloughed home by the thou
sands for the week preceding election.
One of these missionaries will make
more votes than score of stump speak
ers. But the president" he continued,
must not be known as privy to it, nor
must it be an order from the war de-
partment Assistant War Secretary
Charles A. Dana was sent to General
Meade's headquarters to negotiate this
pieco of finesse, and that general was
very unwillingly persuaded to spare his
battalions. But Pennsylvania went
Lincoln" by an overwhelming major
ity. The versatility of Lincoln, master
in power and mental resource even as
political juggler, astonishes the mind.
One is interested in such incidents main
ly as they blazon his complex makeup
and wonders that a man so equipped OH
the noblest side Of craftsmanship should
have had these lesser gifts of the work
ing politician, an endowment rarely
united in the same man.
Whatever credit may be justly given
to the staff of great lieutenants in coun-
Gil and camp who held up the hands Of
Abraham Lincoln, his genius over
shadows them all. His was the initiative
of all great measures, his the power to
SEQ things dissociated from party Or tenn
pLrary bias in luminous perspective.
Stanton, Seward, Chase, great men as
they were and of domineering wills,
recognized the master, who had them
bitted and bridled, yet never let them
feel the gall of the curb, so firmly gen
tie was his touch. 1t was not really till
tho last year of Lincoln's s life, the year
of his denomination, that there was a
fully adequate notion abroad in the
land, however, of just what measure of
greatness there was in him. But that
was the year when the nation made
stock taking of the four years, posted
the ledger and struck the balance. The
sharp cut, salient bigness of him, cleav-
ing upward like an Alpine peak, stood
out monumental. All cloud of miscon-
ception had blown away. Men could
look back and see in true proportion the
presidents management of the slavery
question as in its threefold relation, a
military, political and international
weapon. The emancipation proclama
tion probably saved the country. Had it
not been for that downright step, which
stiffened the backbone of English liberia
tion, Earl Russell would probably have
had free hand to have smashed the
blockade. So, too, Lincoln's treatment
of the Trent" incident, of the Mexican
imbroslio and of the other great exigen
cies which rose with repeated threat,
shone in its true light. Men felt that
here was "a man sent Of God" when
the polling booths of November, 1864,
were tho scene of the most important
battle of the war.
Mr.. Lincoln rose greatly to occasion
in times of action. In rising to occasion
in fitness of spaech he was equally sure.
Scores of his utterances have got imbed
ded as unwritten sections of the Ameri-
can constitution. That, for example,
whero he spoke of this country as one
'where every man has right to be
equal with every other man." is lamp
set in the midst of the Declaration of In
dependence. At least two of his utter
ances will live, while the speech of men
endures, among the greatest monuments
of eloquence. The first Of these thought
out incidentally within few hours Of
delivery and only 269 words long, spo-
ken at the dedication of the Gettysburg
battlefield, completely dwarfs every
thing similar in history. The simple
Doric phrases were elegy and trumpet
blast. They are ineffaceably chiseled on
the worlds memory, and Edward
Everett's brilliant oration of two hours
at the same time has already gone to
the inst heap. So Lincoln's second in
augural takes rank among the matchless
things of human speech, the becoming
of the hour and the man.
Lincolns fame has broadened and
deepened and heightened with the flight
of years Unlike most great men, he in
spires love equally with awe and admi-
ration. When we think of him now, it
is not merely the figure of the great
statesman and the savior of a nation
that rises, 1t is the man of many sor-
rows, the big tender heart in the un-
couth giant frame, the intense humani-
ty of him that sounds the magic stop
and tells why Lincoln is Lincoln.
q. T. FERRIS.
A Russian in PariS who has mada a