CHAPTER XXXVII.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: THE DIPLOMATIST - THE MILITARY STRATEGIST THE MASTER OF ENGLISH PROSE-THE STATESMAN -THE GREAT PRESIDENT.

WHO shall write the history of the administration of our great President? Not one who knew the truehearted man, who was so patient, so apt to teach, so gentle to others, that he inspired in one who came in contact with him an undying love which could not fail to find expression in his pen. By and by, in another century, when all those who saw his face when it did shine as the sun are no longer to be called as his witnesses, let the man be found who is his equal in prose composition, who is as just as Solomon, as wise as Solon, as great a soldier as Wellington, the Tacitus of his time; and let him be assigned to that duty. I will be content if I can describe some of the incidents which made us so honor and love Abraham Lincoln.

From the dome of the Capitol the statue of Liberty looked upon a great spectacle on the bright morning of March 4th, 1861. From the Executive Mansion to the Capitol gate, the avenue and its buildings on either side, from basement to roof; the grounds on the Potomac front; the many seats provided on the eastern side, the great square of the Columbus statue, and the windows of the Capitol-all the space was occupied by American citizens. They were orderly.

There were a few policemen present-they were in citizen's dress. A single field battery, the only one in Washington, was so concealed on the street fronting the old Capitol that only the few who were in the secret knew that even this slight preparation had been made to suppress any attempt at rebellion.

A small hollow square formed by the engineers of the regular army, inclosing an open carriage in which rode the aged, enervated, outgoing President, moved like a machine from the White House to Willard's Hotel. There a tall and stalwart figure, with an earnest face and firm step, entered the carriage, and the procession moved down the avenue to the Capitol, which was entered at the Senate door. After a brief delay for the exercises in the Senate chamber, another procession was formed and marched to the principal eastern exit. First came the stalwart figure, arm in arm with a senator. The venerable chief justice and associated justices of the United States, the diplomatic corps in full dress, senators, and high officers of the army and navy followed them. They advanced well to the front, where a table had been placed. On their right and left and in front of them, in silent expectation, was the largest audience that ever witnessed an inauguration. Then, clear as the tones of a silver bell, the voice of the most knightly man in all the land seemed to fill the invigorating air, reaching the most distant auditor, when the gallant Senator Baker said: "Fellow-citizens, I introduce to you Abraham Lincoln, the President-elect of the United States of America."

His first inaugural address was then delivered. From its opening words to its beautiful closing paragraph, the assembled thousands listened with an ex

pectation almost painful in its intensity to every word of this remarkable paper. This had been the first silent inauguration since the foundation of the Government. When the President-elect first appeared to enter the carriage at his hotel, there was an attempt to applaud, but it was not successful. His long ride down the avenue, his entrance to the Senate chamber, his appearance before his great audience called forth almost no applause. His protest that he had no purpose to interfere with slavery, his reference to the Chicago platform, drew the attention of his audience more closely; his statement that he took the official oath with no mental reservations raised upon many faces a look of hopeful anticipation which grew more earnest when he declared his opinion that under the Constitution the Union of the States was perpetual-it was perilously near breaking into sound as he enlarged upon this topic-then he paused, and with face and hands uplifted, as if he was looking far into the unknown future, with a voice in which there was no trace of hesitation or uncertainty, he declared his own purpose to use the power confided to him by the Constitution to hold, occupy, and possess the places and property of the United States, and to collect the duties and imposts, and then all the barriers of doubt were swept away and every loyal breast gave forth a shout of thanksgiving which shook the ground and rent the air like a pæan of victory and freedom sung by loyal millions over the irrevocablę doom of rebellion. The remaining paragraphs of this remarkable paper were heard with increasing evidences of loyal approval, and its close was indescribably pathetic. It was like the concentrated yearnings of a mother over a wayward child.

With his left hand upon the open Bible, his right raised toward heaven, the solemn, earnest voice repeated slowly with distinct enunciation, after the venerable chief justice, the words of the oath to defend the Constitution: "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me God."

Thus Abraham Lincoln became President of a republic from which seven States had attempted to secede, at an hour when it was infested by treason and threatened with armed rebellion. The telegraph flashed his great inaugural to the remotest corners of the country, but it was many days before its power or the plain declaration of its policy was appreciated. The country was not prepared for such a document. The more it was studied the more unanswerable it was felt to be. It was new in the elegance of its composition, but its principles were those which had long been advocated by its author. Still there was a force in its pointed truths which captivated the judgment, although there were some loyal Democrats who did not yield to its conclusions until the blow of treason fell.

In the rapid survey of the acts for which President Lincoln is to be justly credited or held responsible, to which this article is restricted, the reader should understand, at the outset and once for all, that for about three years in his judgment certain propositions had been firmly established and were no longer open to argument or question. One of these was that the slave power had determined to make slavery lawful everywhere within the republic, and nothing

of that power.

would prevent that consummation but the destruction In its success he knew the free States would never acquiesce until they were conquered. He conscientiously believed that slavery was a cruel injustice to the slave, a menace of increasing strength to the republic. By the clear light of his matured judgment he saw that for him the path of duty was the path of honor; he must obey the Constitution and enforce the laws; he must repress rebellion and destroy treason. If slavery and armed rebellion must both perish in the conflict he could not be held responsible at the bar of justice or his own conscience, and it would still be true that "all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword."

It was most fortunate, for himself and for the country that Mr. Lincoln had constantly in his mind this standard of judgment, which determined for him what he should and what he should not do. For he had an extremely sensitive conscience and no capacity to avoid trouble or escape responsibility. Other Presidents had acquiesced in questionable precedents on the ground that they were established by department officers who were alone responsible for their continued application. He never in such or any other case permitted another to perform a duty which was imposed upon him by the law. If he had not been able by certain and fixed principles to determine questions of difficulty, anxiety and care would have worn out his life before the close of the second year of his term. In our judgment of his acts, then, we must never lose sight of his convictions. knew that slavery was aiming at the domination of the republic and would fight before it would yield;

He