Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-05-05
Fiue Minutes A Day
With Our Presidents.

Bx JAMES MORGAN.

loF u mercy formal acceptance OF
the nomination, Lincoln received the
news of his election to the presidency
with the bitter anguish OF the ma
tons jeopardy in his heart and in
his face the shadow OF his awful re-
sponsibllity. For southern leaders
had warned the country that the tri-
umph of a minority candidate and OF
a sectional party, which did not put
out a ticket in ten states of the south,
would be the signal for breaking up
the Union. The Republican party,
falling far short of a majority. had
won a four-cornered contest only be-
cause the Democrats had divided
their votes between Douglas and
Breckenridge. with q large remnant
Of the old Whig party voting for Bell.
As state after state made good the
threat by Withdrawing It's representa-
tives from Washington INC by enter
ing the southern c~onfederacy, a NOR
al, financial and industrial panic
shook the north. There rose a fran
tic clamor for letting the south go or
for compromising with 1t again. Sc
ward and a large section of the Re-
| puDlicans began to trim sails. and
not less than forty measures for
patching up q truce were proposed in
congress-.
From the new captain came the
clear command: Hold firm as Il
chain of steel" While so many other
northern leaders were buffeted about
like corks in q surf. Lincoln steered
his steady our in the storm by two
beacon lights: the Union, and the
mandate of his election, which was
to stop the spread of slavery beyond
its existing boundaries.
Ofice-seekers n statesmen flock
ed to the simple village home in
Springfield, where the P~resident-elect
in "snuff-colored, slouchy panta-
looms and open black vest with brass
buttons"-let them in and talked
with them while his two little sons
noisily clambered over him. But he
kept his own counsels. Without con-
sulting any one or confiding in any
one, he completed the outlines of his
cabinet as he sat in the excited hurly-
burly of the telegraph Office election
night. When the time came to write
his inaugural address. he retired into
the solitude of a bare room over a
store.
One day as he and Mrs. Lincoln
were busily unpaeking some pur-
chases which they had made in CHI
cago for their journey TO Washing
ton, and he thought of the public
fears that the rising tide Of secession
would engulf Virginia and Maryland
and IL off the President-elect from
the capital, the humor of the grim
situation brought>a twinkle to his eye
and a pucker to his lips. We'll.
Mary" he said, there is one thing
likely to come u of this scrape,
anyhow. We are going to nave some
new clothes"
On the eve of his departure to as
sumo the exalted station to which he
had been called, he made a journey
to the home of his stepmother. He
was Loyalty caring for the good woul-
! an who had brought sunshine into
It. Ha-oI14a havhnaI xuhnga "a I frl
hands had clothed him and who had
| given him a chance TO go TO school
| and learn his letters. But her enjoy
ment of his visit was clouded with
gloomy forebodings that his enemies
would Kill him and that she never
! would see him again.
He had his own dark p~resenti-
ments. on the day of his nomination
he saw two reflections of himself in a
mirror, one of them a pale shadow,
and the superstition always present
In this primitive man was aroused,
on the night before he started for
Washington, as he was sadly leaving
his old law Office for the last time and
saying goodbye to his partner, he
foretold the fate hat awaited him.
The people who had gathered at the
railway station the neX morning TO
say goodbye to him saw him, as long
as his train remained in sight, stand
ing on lile DldtlOiH Ol lie a q ilit
ancholy figure. wistfully looking back
at the vanishing little town into
which he had walked a barefoot law
student and where fame had sought
him out. |
An Instance of the simple nature of
the man, which occurred in the
course of his journey, caused many
.smiles and -as many sneers. Having
adopted the advice of a little girl in
a New York town, who wrote him al
letter begging him to grow Il beard
on his hitherto clean-shaNen face. he
called for her when his train stopped
at her station and told her, as he
kissed her. that he. had made the
change at her request.
At Philadelphia there was a more
solemn incident, touched with q trag-
ic prophecy. In the unwonted emo
tons evoked by Independence Hail.
| where he spoke on W~ashington'S
Birthday, Lincoln was moved to de-
| clare that If the Union could not be
| ave without giving up the prinei-
! pies of the Declaration of ~Independ-
ence, he would rather be assassinat-
ed on this spot than surrender it
As the presidential train neared
Washington, Lincoln was met by a
messenger from Seward n also by
Allan Pinkerton. the noted detective,
with the warning of q plot to mob
him in Baltimore, where in those
times all through railway ears had
to be slowly hauled across the city
by horses. Although he disliked 10
steal into the capital. as he said,
like a thief in the night" he accept
ed the advice of those around him
and quietly left his party at Harris
burg. Accompanied only by Pinker-
ton and another loyal Illinois friend.
he finished the journey unobserved.
though undisguised, in a general
sleeping ear. Arriving in Washington
at dawn the three men hailed a sta
ton hack, like n other strangers,
and were already settled at THEN
hotel when the capital awoke to the
startling news that the President
elect was in the city.