XXXIX.

HOW THE PEOPLE LEARNED TO TRUST HIM.

Mr. Lincoln's letter to the meeting of the Republicans in Springfield, Illinois, was so full of logic and keen and clear reasoning and wit and so strong in the sense of his own responsibility, that it was a great success. Charles Sumner, who at first had not approved of the President but afterward came to like him much, wrote to him: "Thanks for your true and noble letter. It is a historical document. The case is admirably stated, so that all but the wicked must confess its force. It cannot be answered." For in this letter Mr. Lincoln had spoken of peace measures and of emancipation, questions of which the country was full then. Henry Wilson, the other Senator from Massachusetts with Sumner wrote Lincoln: "God Almighty bless you for your noble, patriotic and Christian letter. It will be on the lips and in the hearts of hundreds of thousands this day." And one of the

messages about his letter that the President most appreciated came from Josiah Quincy, then ninety-one years old. Mr. Quincy wrote: "I cannot refrain from expressing to you my gratification and my gratitude for your letter to the Illinois Convention-happy, timely, conclusive, and effective. What you say concerning emancipation, your proclamation, and your course of proceeding in relation to it was due to truth, and to your own character shamefully assailed as it has been. The development is an imperishable monument of wisdom and virtue." He went on to say that compromise was impossible, that only the war could bring us peace and Union.

It is good to know that many such letters as these were written to Mr. Lincoln at that time; for no man in a public office had ever been so cruelly misunderstood and spoken against. But at last the skies were brightening and people were coming to perceive what a wonderful man he was and what a great leader. But the thing which Lincoln cared for most of all-more than anything that could come to himself-was the success of the war for the Union, and the assurance of emancipation of the slaves. And what Lincoln says in this letter about the aid of the slaves in the war we ought to remember when we are proud of our great united country. After

showing that we were not fighting "to free negroes," but using the help of the negroes, he says: "I thought that whatever negroes can be got to do as soldiers leaves just so much less for white soldiers to do in saving the Union. Does it appear otherwise to you? But negroes, like other people, act upon motives. Why should they do anything for us if we will do nothing for them? If they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by the strongest motive, even the promise of freedom. And the promise, being made, must be kept."

We have the problem of the colored people with us today; and when we think of it, we should remember that between one and two hundred thousand colored troops fought to help us save the Union, and have a right to feel this their country as well as ours, and to be treated as other men are treated.

In this September of 1863, the Springfield Convention passed a resolution: "That we will lay aside all party questions and forget all party prejudices and devote ourselves unreservedly to the support of our Government, until the rebellion shall be finally and forever crushed; that whatever else may perish, the Government shall survive in all its constitutional integrity; whatever else may be destroyed, the nation shall be preserved in its territorial unity; and to this

end we pledge anew our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

As a result of the victories and Lincoln's letter and the Springfield Convention, every State that held elections that fall of 1863, except New Jersey, gave great majorities for the administration. The great riots against the draft in New York City in the July of that year helped the government in the end; the rioters were so horribly cruel that they turned thousands against their party.

Grant and Sherman and Thomas and other generals in the West gave new courage to the deep loyalty of the North; and the better the people came to understand Mr. Lincoln, the more they trusted and the better they loved him. The men whom all the country most honored came out strongly in favor of the war as our only road to peace. Oliver Wendell Holmes

wrote:

"Listen, young heroes. Your country is calling,

Time strikes the hour for the brave and the true; Now, while the foremost are fighting and falling,

Fill up the ranks that have opened for you. You whom the fathers made free and defended, Stain not the scroll that emblazons their fame; You whose fair heritage spotless descended,

Leave not your children a birthright of shame!"

Dr. Holmes could call upon the young men to go to the war; for his own son was there; and with him thousands upon thousands of the true and brave; for the flower of the land went forth at the call of the President and filled up the ranks from which other soldiers not less noble had fallen in battle. There was not a home where one of the household, or some friend of the family was not in the army, or had not fallen in battle among the heroes. And many parents mourning for their sons, recalled how the sad-eyed President had lost his own little son and could understand how they suffered. Also, his oldest son was in the army sharing the same risks that their sons did.

In the June of 1864, when much hard work had been done since the Springfield Convention, and many hard-fought battles had been won— and some lost-the Republicans a second time nominated Abraham Lincoln for President. His opponent, the candidate of the peace party who said that the war was wrong and that everything about it had gone wrong, was General McClellan, who put himself side by side with men who hated and railed against the Union.

In the July of 1864, the President called for five hundred thousand more men, to be had by draft if enough did not volunteer. His friends told him he would lose his election by doing