PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S POSITION IN HISTORY.

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its consequences to the Southern people. President Lincoln was not without faults, but his goodness and virtues far overshadowed them. None more than he ever better illustrated the maxim that the good alone are great.

It was almost a peculiarity of Mr. Lincoln, among the great men of history, that all his public and private utterances bear the impress of an honest, conscientious regard for whatever he believed to be right and wise. Though "popular beyond all others of his time," he never sought station or advancement by the sacrifice of the public welfare on the shrine of party or personal ambition. He was singularly free from sectional and partisan passion and animosity. It was a privilege of the writer to see him often while he was in the possession of his great office, and to hear him converse upon public affairs. At no time did Mr. Lincoln utter a harsh or unkind word in regard to political opponents, or toward the insurgent South. When no great public concern engaged his attention, and perhaps as a temporary relief from the cares of state, his conversation was often light and humorous; but Mr. Lincoln could discard frivolity when confronted by a serious demand on his powers. He could always rise up to the occasion. He possessed a clear and vigorous understanding, and a sincere love of truth. His reasoning powers were remarkable. He could, upon occasion, rise to the most sublime flights of eloquence. His little introductory speech at the Gettysburg cemetery dedication will outlive the elaborate and eloquent oration delivered by Mr. Everett on the same day. There were men in Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet eminent for learning and talents; trained statesmen distinguished for the moral courage with which they had encountered the fierce and unbending antagonism of the Southern slave-holding leaders; but in virtue of his native resolution, single-hearted love of truth and right, his clear and strong understanding, cultivated and sharpened by the study and practice of law, Abraham Lincoln was more than the peer of the best of them. In these qualities, in broad humanity and in devotion to country, Abraham Lincoln stands the peer of the purest and greatest men of whom history leaves a record.

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CHAPTER XVIII.

PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S POLICY OF RECONSTRUCTION.

WHEREIN IT DIFFERED FROM MR. LINCOLN'S -THE END OF THE BLOCKADE ALL THE PORTS OPEN – REVENUE AND POSTAL LAWS IN FORCE-THE CIVIL PROVISIONAL GOVERNORS THE MILITARY AID THEM-THE MILITARY NOT TO OBSTRUCT THE VOTERS - LOYALTY AND WHITE SUFFRAGE THE RULE INTENSE RADICAL DISSATISFACTION – SENATOR HOWE'S PECULIAR VIEWS OF STATE RIGHTS—A STATE AS A MANUFACTURED PRODUCT!-"IF THE STATES ARE ADMITTED " -THE RADICAL ARGUMENT AB INCONVENIENTI — REMARKS OF THE AUTHOR THE COMPATIBILITY OF STATE AND FEDERAL RIGHTS INDESTRUCTIBLE STATES AND UNION.

T

HE reconstruction policy of President Lincoln, as has been shown in the preceding chapter, was to offer amnesty to all participants in the rebellion, excepting only certain classes of persons who had been prominent as leaders. Those to whom the amnesty was extended would be required to renew their allegiance to the United States under the solemnity of an oath which required a pledge to support the acts of Congress and the President's proclamation in regard to slavery. The classes excluded from amnesty, until a special pardon should be granted, All civil and diplomatic officers or agents of the Confederate States; all who had left judicial stations, or seats in Congress, or the army or navy of the United States, to take part in the rebellion; all army and navy officers in the service of the Confederacy above the rank of colonel in the army or lieutenant in the navy; and all who had been engaged in treating colored soldiers, or white officers in command of them, otherwise than lawfully, when prisoners of war. Those included in these classes numbered but a few hundred persons in each state. All others who so desired could take the oath, and exercise their political franchise.

were:

President Johnson's policy was not so liberal as that of his predecessor. In his Amnesty proclamation, issued on May 29, 1865, he excepted from its benefits all the classes mentioned in his predecessor's proclamation, and also the following classes: All officers who had resigned or tendered resignations of their commissions in the army or navy of the United States, to evade