by his wife and children, uttering to listening hearts the latest whispers of the lips on which the hush of death is falling, as dying a natural death. Is, then, the death of him that falls in battle for his country, an unnatural departure? War is not a casualty. It is part of the divinely given right and might of nations.

Superstition sees not now a goddess or a god, directing battles. We behold no Pallas, with her ægis, where the chassepot or the needle-gun incarnadines the grass or reddens the river. But philosophy and faith still agree in calling life a battle.

Yet it follows not that war should be desired at all times. Ruskin may be right so far as goes his doctrine, that it is in times of straightening and battle that nations have exhibited their highest virtue, and wrought their most accomplished works. The same eloquent but sometimes not well-balanced writer may, alas! be right in teaching, that no nation ever enjoyed a protracted and triumphant peace without receiving in its own bosom ineradicable seeds of future decline. But, though life be a battle, it has armistices. In the lines,

"Under the sun I have marched and I've wandered;

Life is a battle, yes! but it hath truces;

During the truces I've wandered, and pondered

Much on this life in its aspects and uses,"

there may be little poetry, but I cousider them as indicating tolerably well a truth too seldom well considered.

Peace, although it may appear exceptional, is, in a certain sense, not so abnormal as its opposite. In war, we generally struggle for a glorious peace.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE PEACE CONFERENCE-THE CIVIL WAR-CHASE IN THE TREASURY.

N order to do justice to our hero's views respecting the doctrine of the secessionists, I have anticipated somewhat. Let me now invite attention to a letter, addressed to Thaddeus Stevens, and relating to that interview between Chase and Lincoln. Let me ask for that letter close attention. It is full of interest to every farther revelation of this work. Its tenor is as follows:

"COLUMBUS, OHIO, January 9, 1861.

"MY DEAR SIR: Your note came when I was in Springfield, at Mr. Lincoln's request. I arrived after your Pennsylvanians had all gone. Mr. Lincoln conversed frankly and fully. He is a man to be depended on. He may, as all men may, make mistakes; but the cause will be want of sufficient information, not unsoundness of judgment or of devotedness to principle. It is the business of Republicans occupying responsible positions, or possessing, in private stations, the confidence of their fellow-citizens, to give him that information which is indispensable to right conclusions.

"I am glad to find your course, in opposing concessions of principle, approved throughout the north-west. Why can't Republicans await the coming in of their own administration, and then act generously, as well as justly.

"I shall always be glad to hear from you, and you may be sure your confidence will be respected. Your friend, "Hon. T. Stevens.

S. P. CHASE."

Such, according to the judgment of our hero, was the man, who, during the armed uprising of the South, was to be, ex-officio, commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the Union. Whether that judgment was correct or not I do not here examine.

The speech of Mr. Chase in the Peace Conference was one of the best efforts of his heart and lips in oratory. It was delivered on the 26th day of February, 1861. No trace of sympathy with the seceders, either as to doctrine, or as to the desire of dissolution, can be found in it. It is, however, marked by some distinctions which may seem, to some readers, not quite statesmanlike.

It proposed, in effect, to agitate for certain terms of peaceable

adjustment. Chase said, as reported by Mr. Chittenden, the substantial accuracy of whose report we shall find him acknowledging in a letter to that gentleman:1

"You profess to be satisfied with slavery, as it is, and where it is. You think the institution just and beneficial. The very able gentleman from Virginia (M. Seddon), who commands the respect of all, by the frankness and sincerity of his speech, has said that he believes slavery to be the condition in which the African is to be educated up to freedom. He does not believe in perpetual slavery. He believes the time will come when the slave, through the beneficent influence of the circumstances which surround him, will rise in intelligence, capacity, and character, to the dignity of a freeman, and will be free.

"We can not agree with you, and, therefore, do not propose to allow slavery where we are responsible for it, outside of your State limits, and under national jurisdiction. But we do not mean to interfere with it at all within State limits. So far as we are concerned, you can work out your experiment there in peace. We shall rejoice if no evil comes from it to you or yours. [Mr. Chase's time having expired, he was unanimously invited to proceed.]

"Aside from the Territorial question-the question of slavery outside of slave States-I know of but one serious difficulty. I refer to the question concerning fugitives from service. The clause in the Constitution concerning this class of persons is regarded by almost all men, north and south, as a stipulation for the surrender, to their masters, of slaves escaping into free States. The people of the free States, however, who believe that slaveholding is wrong, can not, and will not, aid in the reclamation; and the stipulation becomes, therefore, a dead letter. You complain of bad faith, and the complaint is retorted by denunciations of the cruelty which would drag back to bondage the poor slave who has escaped from it. You, thinking slavery right, claim the fulfillment of the stipulation; we, thinking slavery wrong, can not fulfill the stipulation without consciousness of participation in wrong. Here is a real difficulty; but, it seems to me, not insuperable. It will not do for us to say to you, in justification of non-performance, The stipulation is immoral, and, therefore, we can not execute it; for you deny the immorality, and we can not assume to judge for you. On the other hand, you ought not to exact from us the literal performance of the stipulation when you know we can not perform it without conscious culpability. A true solution of the difficulty seems to be attainable by regarding it as a simple case where a contract, from changed circumstances, can not be fulfilled exactly as made. A court of equity in such a case decrees execution as near as may be. It requires the party who can not perform to make compensation for non-performance. Why can not the same principle be applied to the rendition of fugitives from service? We can not surrenderbut we can compensate. Why not, then, avoid all difficulties on all

See Chapter XXXIX.

sides, and show respectively good faith and good will by providing and accepting compensation where masters reclaim escaping serv ants, and prove their right of reclamation under the Constitution? Instead of a judgment for rendition, let there be a judgment for compensation, determined by the true value of the services, and let the same judgment assure freedom to the fugitive. The cost to the national treasury would be as nothing in comparison with the evils of discord and strife. All parties would be gainers.

"What I have just said is, indeed, not exactly to the point of the present discussion. But I refer to this matter to show how easily the greatest difficulties may be adjusted if approached in a truly just, generous, and patriotic spirit.

"I refer to it also in order to show you that, if we do not concede all your wishes, it is because our ideas of justice, duty, and honor forbid, and not because we cherish any hostile or aggressive sentiments. We will go as far as we can to meet you-come you as far as you can to meet us. Join, at least, in the declaration we propose. Your people have confidence in you. They will believe you. The declaration, made with substantial unanimity by this conference, will tranquillize public sentiment, and give a chance for reason to resume its sway, and patriotic counsels to gain a hearing.

"Do you say that, after all, what we propose embodies no substantial guaranties of immunity to slavery through the perversion of Federal power? We reply that we think the Constitution as it stands, interpreted honestly and executed faithfully, is sufficient for all practical purposes; and that you will find all desirable security in the legislation or non-legislation of Congress. If you think otherwise, we are ready to join you in recommending a national convention to propose amendments to the Constitution in the regular and legitimate way. Kentucky, a slave State, has proposed such a convention; Illinois, a free State, has joined in the proposition. Join us, then, in recommending such a convention, and assure us that you will abide by its decision. We will join you and give a similar assur

ance.

"This, gentlemen, is the proposition we make you to-day. It is embodied in the amendment just submitted. Is it not a fair proposition? It is a plain declaration of facts which can not reasonably be questioned, and a plain submission of all disputed questions to the only proper tribunal for the settlement of such questions-that of the American people, acting through a national convention.

"The only alternative to this proposition is the proposition that the present Congress be called upon to submit to the State a thirteenth article embodying the amendments recommended by the committee. In order to the submission of these amendments to the States by Congress, a two-thirds vote in each House is necessary. That I venture to say, can not be obtained. Were it otherwise, who can assure you that the new article will obtain the sanction of threefourths of the States, without which it is a nullity? As a measure of pacification, I do not understand it. There is, in my judgment, no peace in it. Gentlemen here, of patriotism and intelligence, think otherwise. I am sorry that I can not agree with them.

"Gentlemen say, if this proposition can not prevail, every slave

State will secede; or, as some prefer to phrase it, will resort to revolution. I forbear to discuss eventualities. I must say, however, and say plainly, that considerations such as these will not move me from my recognized duty to my country and its Constitution. And let me say for the people of the free States, that they are a thoughtful people, and are much in earnest in this business. They do not delegate their right of private judgment. They love their institutions and the Union. They will not surrender the one nor give up the other without great sacrifices. Upon the question of the maintenance of an unbroken Union and a whole country they never were, and it is my firm conviction they never will be, divided. Gentlemen who think they will be, even in the worst contingency, will, I think, be disappointed. If forced to the last extremity, the people will meet the issue as best they may, but be assured that they will meet it with no discordant councils.

"Gentlemen, Mr. Lincoln will be inaugurated on the 4th of March. He will take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States-of the whole-of all the United States. That oath will bind him to take care that the laws be faithfully executed throughout the United States. Will secession absolve him from that oath? Will it diminish, by one jot or tittle, its awful obligations? Will attempted revolution do more than secession? And if not-and the oath and the obligation remain-and the President does his duty and undertakes to enforce the laws, and secession or revolution exists, what then? War! Civil war!

"Mr. President, let us not rush headlong into that unfathomable gulf. Let us not tempt this unutterable woe. We offer you a plain and honorable mode of adjusting all difficulties. It is a mode which, we believe, will receive the sanction of the people. We pledge ourselves here that we will do all in our power to obtain their sanction for it. Is it too much to ask of you, gentlemen of the South, to meet us on this honorable and practicable ground? Will you not, at least, concede this to the country?'

On parchment, sealed with the great seal of the United States, is the following document:

"Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America. To all who shall see these presents, greeting: Know ye, that reposing special trust and confidence in the patriotism, integrity, and abilities of Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, I have nominated, and by, and with the advice and consent of the Senate, do appoint him to be Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, and do authorize and empower him to execute and fulfill the duties of that office according to law, and to have and to hold the said office, with all the powers, privileges, and emoluments thereunto of right appertaining, unto him, the said Salmon Portland Chase, during the pleasure of the President of the United States, for the time being.

"In testimony whereof, I have caused these letters to be made patent and the seal of the United States to be hereunto affixed.

"Given under my hand, at the City of Washington, the fifth day of March, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and