182 ADDRESS TO HOMEWARD-BOUND SOLDIERS.

you have done in this great struggle in which we are engaged, I present you sincere thanks for myself and the country. I almost always feel inclined, when I say anything to soldiers, to impress upon them, in a few brief remarks, the importance of success in this contest. It is not merely for the day, but for all time to come, that we should perpetuate for our children's children that great and free government which we have enjoyed all our lives. I beg you to remember this, not only for my sake, but for yours. I happen, temporarily, to occupy this big White House. I am a living witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my father's child has. It is in order that each of you may have, through this free government which we have enjoyed, an open field and a fair chance for your industry, enterprize, and intelligence; that you may all have equal privileges in the race of life, with all its desirable human aspirations-it is for this that the struggle should be maintained, that we may not lose our birthrights, not only for one, but for two or

THE CONFEDERATES IN MISSOURI.

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three years, if necessary. The nation is worth fighting for, to secure such an inestimable jewel."

To divert Grant from Richmond, and Sherman from Atlanta, were now the chief aims of the Confederates. To say nothing of some mischievous and murderous raids from the British border, evidently devised only to embroil England with the United States, Missouri was for the third time invaded by General Price in October; and though the Federal general in command, Rosecranz, whose right hand seemed to have forgot her cunning since Chattanooga, did little to check it, the Confederates ended by being routed, chiefly by Kansas militia, seconded by 5,000 Federal cavalry under Pleasanton, and withdrew, to return no more. Forrest, who

had long succeeded in maintaining himself in Western Tennessee, was scouring with his cavalry to eastward, in order to destroy Sherman's communications. Acting in concert with him, Hood, with about 45,000 men, was operating (since about September 20) in Sherman's

184 THE MARYLAND FREE CONSTITUTION.

rear, destroying the railway line from Atlanta to Chattanooga, and attacking detached garrisons. All, no doubt, quite in accordance with the rules of war. But some men are able to make rules as well as to follow them.

To the same month of October belongs an important event in the civil history of the time -the adoption of an anti-slavery constitution by Maryland. Mr. Lincoln (October 10) wrote as follows on the subject before the vote:

"It needs not to be a secret, and I presume it is no secret, that I wish success to this provision. I wish all men to be free.

I wish the material prosperity of the already free, which I feel sure the extinction of slavery will bring. I wish to see in process of disappearing that only thing which ever could bring this nation to civil war."

Being serenaded by loyal Marylanders after the vote, Mr. Lincoln took the opportunity of replying to a calumnious charge then being made against him, that if he were not re-elected

REPLY TO LOYAL MARYLANDERS.

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he would retain his functions in defiance of the law:

"I am struggling to maintain the Government, not to overthrow it. I am struggling especially to prevent others from overthrowing it. I therefore say that, if I live, I shall remain President until the 4th of next March, and that whoever shall be constitutionally elected in November, shall be duly installed as President on the 4th of March, and in the interval I shall do my utmost that whoever is to hold the helm for the next voyage shall start with the best possible chance of saving the ship. This is due to the people, both on principle and under the Constitution. Their will, constitutionally expressed, is the ultimate law for all. If they should deliberately resolve to have immediate peace, even at the loss of their country and their liberties, I know not the power or the right to resist them. It is their own business, and they must do as they please with their own. I believe, however, they are still resolved to preserve their country and their liberties; and

186

THE TENNESSEE TEST-OATH.

in this, in office or out of it, I am resolved to stand by them. I may add, that in this purpose to save the country and its liberties, no classes of people seem so nearly unanimous as the soldiers in the field and the sailors afloat. Do they not have the hardest of it? Who should quail while they do not? God bless the soldiers and seamen, with all their brave commanders!"

I cannot stop over a letter written by the President in reply to an address from Tennessee, complaining of a test oath required by Governor Johnson (the present President) as a condition to the exercise of the franchise (October 22). Mr. Lincoln's conclusion was, that he "could have nothing to do with the matter," as, "by the constitution and laws, the President is charged with no duty in the conduct of the Presidential election in any state." A decision much cried out against at the time, but which was justified by the fact that the vote of Tennessee in his own favour was eventually disallowed by Congress.