armies; gave the Monitor and armored vessels to the navy and improved arms to both branches of the service.

The literary world has had no superior to Abraham Lincoln in the composition of English prose. His farewell to his Springfield neighbors; his speeches at Trenton and at Independence Hall in Philadelphia; the closing paragraph of the first and the whole of the second inaugural address; the speech at Gettysburg; his letters to Mrs. Bixby and to Horace Greeley will not suffer by comparison with any English prose which had been theretofore written. competent critic who has written an appreciative volume on the English prose of the present century properly selects the long letter of August 26th, 1863, to James C. Conkling as an unexcelled example of English prose.

A

I have said that he would appoint the best man for a place although he was his enemy. The quality which in this respect controlled him has been called his magnanimity. He seems to have been incapable, in such a case, of taking into account anything but qualifications for the place. General McClellan, who with singular impropriety had a'sserted that he was divinely appointed to save the country and had undertaken to instruct the President how to discharge his duties, had not hesitated to make imputations against him which were insulting. Yet he gave McClellan the command at Antietam, against the remonstrances of his Cabinet, because he believed that, as matters then stood, McClellan's appointment was the best he could make. Mr. Stanton in a domineering manner had appropriated a position in an important lawsuit to which Mr. Lincoln

was entitled, and he felt the slight keenly at the time. He did not remember the incident when he made Mr. Stanton the great War Secretary and a member of his Cabinet. Mr. Chase had ridiculed his peculiarities, and resigned without excuse in a manner which was almost contemptuous. In the very hour of his resignation, when any but a great man would have resented the act, he decided to make Mr. Chase Chief Justice of the United States. Chase and Stanton stood by his dying bed. Sincere, intense grief silenced the voice of one; the other exclaimed, "There lies the greatest ruler of men the world ever saw!"

What man so sensitive, so compassionate, so tender, was ever so sorely tried? His children, and especially in his later life, were the objects that filled up the measure of his domestic life. There was something terrible in his speechless, cheerless grief when he lost them. His sorrow over Ellsworth, Baker, and other near friends found some relief in tears. His fear lest some great calamity might fall upon some life through his neglect took many hours from the rest so necessary to his wearied body. He seldom approved the death-sentence of a court-martial, and never until he knew all the facts and that the culprit deserved to die. "You will destroy the discipline of the army if you continue these pardons," remonstrated a high officer. "You must get along some way, for I cannot help doing it," was his noble, his beautiful reply. How speaking was every feature of his face when the captain was pleading for the sleeping sentinel! how quick his resolution himself to go and save him! How tender that interview, when none but God was present, and he talked with

the boy "about his mother, and how she looked and how he ought never to cause her a sorrow or a tear," and so changed the mountain boy into a hero and then gave him his life! Who can read that letter to the Boston mother of five sons, who all "had died gloriously on the field of battle for their country -nay, who has ever had one clear, unobstructed view of the inner life of Abraham Lincoln, and does not know that he was gentle as the beloved disciple and that a tenderer heart than his never beat in a human bosom?

That he was a statesman is now proved by almost every act of his administration for which he was responsible and which bears the impress of his own hand. No member of his Cabinet or of either house of Congress had at all times a clearer view of the situation or of what measures were practicable to suppress the rebellion and restore the Union. Surely no man had a clearer view than his of the cause of the Civil War and of the necessity of removing that cause in order to a lasting peace. His position as a wise, prudent, far-seeing statesman stands unquestioned in the history of his time.

He was a diplomatist. He influenced a Cabinet composed of able men of pronounced and conflicting opinions to act as a harmonious whole. The great powers would willingly have witnessed the fall of the republic. But our ship of State had a skilful pilot and an able captain. Lord Lyons and Drouyn de l'Huys met their equal in Mr. Seward, and Mr. Lincoln was never disturbed by the machinations of Louis Napoleon or the injudicious threats of Earl Russell.

He was a military strategist. Had his clear and

wise suggestions been followed as they should have been, the army of General Lee would not have recrossed the Potomac after Antietam nor after Gettysburg. His letter of October 13th, 1862, to General McClellan is pronounced by competent military critics as a masterpiece, which recognized and dealt with every alternative, and which, properly executed, would have ended the war in that year. His suggestions to the generals in command were always wise and prudent, and remarkable for their grasp of all the details of the situation.

He was a master of English composition. His two inaugural messages, his address at Gettysburg, and his letter to James C. Conkling of August 26th, 1863, have placed him at the very head of the English writers of the nineteenth century.

He was a great President. Before we conclude this brief and inadequate sketch, another of his qualities must be considered.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN THE MAN FULL OF FAITH AND POWER.

It remains to speak of the most attractive and altogether the grandest quality in the noble character of Abraham Lincoln: his simple, constant, undoubting Christian faith. To those who are familiar with his history or his words, any discussion of this trait will seem unnecessary. But there is a necessity for it which may as well be dealt with now as at any future time.

Only bold, bad men assert that there is no God-no future life. The statement is so shocking that most men hesitate to make it. The free-thinkers, as they call themselves, compromise with their sensibilities by admitting that there is a God, to whom they deny all useful attributes, and a future life, which they say is free from all responsibility.

Shades of professed belief among these people are unimportant. To all intents and purposes they are infidels and the world so regards them. They believe that they have no souls to be saved, but are laid in the grave like sheep. They are, as Paul declares, of all men most miserable. They love to insist that those whom the world delights to honor are as destitute of faith as themselves. It seems to comfort them to show that others are as miserable as themselves. They persist in the claim that Abraham