Year: 1867

ATCIlC sea 10 Tie 1SJflultS VI Il diiNa


dearest and most ardently wished for con-


summation of all, that was to domineer over


Great Britain, and press it down into the


second or third rank by an irresistible pre-


ponderance. He had fought and bed for it


against foreign foes he was equally ready


to fight and bleed for it against domestic


enemies How he conquered his favorite


aversion, the bank, and toppled it to the


ground, never to rise again-how he kept


himself and the country out of debt-and


how desperately he fought the battle of hard
money against paper, need not here be re-
counted. But how he struggled against dis
union, and gave it blow from which it
never recovered until the election of Abra-
ham Lincoln, twenty-eight years afterwards,
is part of our purpose to narrate for the
better comprehension of the tragic history
which is still enacting before our eyes, and
Of which no one can foretell the catastro-
phe.


LINCOLN.


When secession at last was accomplished,
under circumstances far too recent and too
well-known to need capituIation, the South
was prepared at most points, the North at
none and man was at the head of affairs,
who, on hasty or superficial judgment,
might have been pronounced singularly in
efficient and unsuited for the task of coer-
cion which cruel fate had thrust upon him.
Like his great predecessor, jackson, he was
a man of the people, without culture or
manners. Unlike Jackson, however, he had
the instincts, if not the education, of gen
tleman-was no rowdy, no drunkard no pro-
fame swearer; but a plain, honest, quiet,
quaint, good man, with no strong will, but
with very strong sense of duty. jackson
cared little either for free trade or protection,
but he cared very much for the Union. In
like manner, Abraham Lincoln cared very
little for the negro and his freedom, though
he disliked slavery; but he cared greatly
and with his whole heart and soul for the
Union. Weak and irresolute as to the
means to be pursued, he was steady and
faithful to the end in view. Sometimes
doubtful of the result, he was never doubt
ful of his duty. In his character there was
no malice, no animosity, no Gyriere pensoe
To his mind the South did not appear as it
did to some of the people about him-a
wicked rebel, to be scourged, to be decimat-
ed, be exterminated, if need were; but
beloved brother who had gone astray, and
to be brought back into the right path by
concession on all points that did not involve
the one great and fundamental principle of
the integrity of the republic.


In the darkest days of the deadly strug-
gle, when few North ern men ventured to
hope for ultimate success-when the best
attainable boundary between North and
South was almost the only result that the
clearest- headed and most sanguine men an
Lincoln, half despairing, half
hopeful, but wholly resolute, saw nothing for
it except, to use his own homely phraseolo-
gy, to keep pegging away" trusting to
Providence to shape the ends, however man
might rough-hew them. He would let the
South maintain slavery without extending
it into new regions, until the Southern lpeo-
pie were wise enough to let it 90, provided
only that the South would remain in the
Union. He would excuse everything, for
give everything, condone everything, if it
would but rehoist the starry banner of the
reunited republic Even when the fierce
passions engendered by the struggle grew
fercer and more envenomed, and permeated.
all classes and ranks of the people down to
the women and children. he was calm, equa-
bic, patient, and merciful as before lie
admitted the strong logic of the Southern
for secession, without admiring it.
He felt, perhaps, that the treason of Jeffer-
son Davis, like that of George Washington,
might be justified by success, and so cease
to be treason. He was border man him
self, and knew what the Southern people
were-what hot blood what determination.
what enthusiasm what heroism was in them;
and he never despised the foe that in his
heart, if all the truth was known, he loved
rather than hated, and whom, most certainly.
he admired for many noble qualities. Pushed
on and backed up by the will of the people,
without any will of his own, except the
willingness to restore the Union at anv
price, he marched from dogma to dogma,
from doctrine TO doctrine, from principle to
principle, by external rather than internal
impulses and with sad heart that he should
have TO do, even under the pressure of over
powering State necessity, anything .incon-
Sistent with the Constitution which Wasb
ington and Jefferson had made, and which
Abraham Lincoln had sworn to uphold.
Andrew Jackson put down notification;
Abraham Lincoln did not put down seces-