CHAPTER XXVII.

PRESIDENT.

Speaking to the Nation-Diplomacy-Journey to Washington-In the Enemy's Country-The District of Columbia Militia-The Flood of Office-seekers-The Inauguration-The Address-The True Meaning of Secession-March, 1861.

MR. LINCOLN's term of office as President of the United States was to begin on the 4th of March, 1861, but he determined to leave Springfield on the 11th of February.

The policy he was pursuing required that he should be seen and heard and more perfectly understood by the people. It was needful that his proceeding to Washington should be made under the concentrated watching of both friends and enemies.

So he decided and so he went. The feverish anxieties of millions attended every step of his journey, and the hearts of men grew hourly better prepared to sustain him after his arrival at the seat of government.

Such preparations for war as had yet been made at the North bore no comparison to those of the South. It was the 18th of February before even such a State as Massachusetts passed an Act to increase the State militia, and tendering men and money to the general government for the maintenance of the national authority. The great State of Pennsylvania did not take similar action until April 9th, and the State Legislature of New York passed its dilatory "war bill" on the 17th of that month. A great deal was doing, in a desultory and illdirected way, by patriotic individuals, but it was not well that the zeal of even these should be so stimulated that their activity should endanger the diplomatic campaign for the mili

tary possession of the border slave-States, or injuriously affect the sluggish and bewildered "public opinion" of important elements all over the North.

At different places on his road to Washington Mr. Lincoln made brief offhand speeches to the crowds which gathered to meet him, and to reply to various addresses more or less patriotic. Every one of these, however informal and apparently devoid of special effort, will bear a careful analysis with reference to their intended effect, as that can now be understood.

The manner of Mr. Lincoln's departure from Springfield expressed with honest unreserve his thoughts, feelings, and the simple purity of his aspirations. None the less did it clearly sound the key-note of all his subsequent official conduct and utterances. Seldom, indeed, have words so few and homely appealed so powerfully to the hearts of such a mighty multitude as in reality listened to his farewell speech to his neighbors.

The railway-train was nearly ready to bear him away, and a crowd had gathered to see it start. The rain was falling fast from a darkened sky, and the misty atmosphere suited well the gloomy feeling which replaced enthusiasm in the minds of the waiting assembly. Mr. Lincoln came out upon the platform of the rear car, standing in silence for a moment, bareheaded, in the rain. There were tears in his voice when he began to speak, but the huskiness departed as he went on and his tones grew clear and strong, though tremulous with emotion. He said:

"Friends: No one who has never been placed in a like position can understand my feelings at this hour,-nor the oppressive sadness I feel at this parting. For more than a quarter of a century I have lived among you, and during all that time I have received nothing but kindness at your hands. Here I have lived from my youth, until now I am an old man. Here the most sacred ties of earth were assumed. Here all my children were born, and here one of them lies buried.

To you,

dear friends, I owe all that I have, all that I am. All the strange, checkered past seems to crowd now upon my mind. To-day I leave you. I go to assume a task more difficult than that which devolved upon Washington. Unless the great God who assisted him shall be with and aid me, I shall fail; but if the same omniscient Mind and almighty Arm that directed and protected him shall guide and support me, I shall not fail. I shall succeed. Let us pray that the God of our fathers may not forsake us now. To him I commend you all. Permit me to ask that, with equal security and faith, you will invoke his wisdom and guidance for me.

"With these few words I must leave you, for how long I know not. Friends, one and all, I must now bid you an affectionate farewell."

The railway-train bore him away and they saw his face no

more.

It is worthy of note, at this point, how entirely every trace of skepticism concerning God and his active providence in human affairs had vanished from the mind of Mr. Lincoln. The fact should also be noted that he had not enrolled himself as a member of any one sect, or declared his unquestioning acceptance of any one creed, selected from among the many formulas presented by professional theologians. The first fact becomes of greater importance and the second of less and less, henceforward. The man who could not lie and did not know how to be a hypocrite, publicly and before the world declared his simple faith, both then and afterwards. So doing, he con tinually called upon his countrymen to join him in acts of repentance, forgiveness, prayer, thanksgiving, hope, trust; reassuring them in God's name when their own hearts sank and their own faith failed. He waded through deep waters and found God with him there, and he reverently said so. It is too late now for any man rationally to accuse Abraham Lincoln of having acted and uttered a solemn lie.

There was nothing in the journey to Washington which put