OF THE CIVIL WAR.

MR. LINCOLN was, under the Constitution, the Commanderin-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, yet neither the one nor the other was in existence on the day when he took the oath of office and assumed the responsibility of defending the life of the Republic. Almost his first duty was to call out and arm soldiers and to obtain and equip vessels of war. No other president, excepting Washington, was ever compelled to be actually the general-in-chief, supervising, if need should be, all subordinate generals. His communications with commanders in the field were more complete than was

at any time possible before the creation of the military telegraphsystem. They were, for altogether the greater part, conducted through the War Office, including, with the Secretary of War, the successive ranking generals, from Scott to Grant. There were a few written epistles, mere epistolary dispatches, perpetual inquiry, counsel, encouragement, but now that the occasions for them and the communications themselves have been subjected to careful study and analysis, the positions taken and the advice or directions given by the president are wonderfully vindicated. All that his contemporary critics described as his "interference with military affairs," may be better summed up in the language of General Grant, May 1, 1864. "From my first entrance into the volunteer service of the country to the pres

ent day, I have never had cause of complaint. . . . I have been astonished at the readiness with which everything asked for has been yielded, without even an explanation being asked." Apart from direct communications with military commanders, relating to campaign operations, there were many things said of a more general nature, conversationally and publicly, and many things written, which exhibit the character of the man, and suggest his methods of dealing with his multiform and trying circumstances.

SPEECH AT CINCINNATI, O., SEPT., 1859.

"The good old maxims of the Bible are applicable, and truly applicable, to human affairs, and in this, as in other things, we may say here that he who is not for us is against us; he who gathereth not with us scattereth."

REPLY TO ONE OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE PEACE CONGRESS, WASH

INGTON, FEB. 24, 1861.

"In a choice of evils, war may not always be the worst. Still, I would do all in my power to avert it, except to neglect a Constitutional duty."

INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1861.

“Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better, or equal, hope in the world? In our present differences, is either party without faith of being in the right?"

CONVERSATIONAL, 1861.

"This is our own affair. It is a family quarrel with which foreign nations have nothing to do, and must let it alone."

CONVERSATION, NOV. 15, 1861. "My own impression is . . . that this Government possesses both the authority and the power to maintain its own integrity. That, however, is not the ugly point of this matter. The ugly point is the necessity of keeping the Government together by force, as ours should be a Government of fraternity."

FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE, DEC. 3, 1862. "A nation which endures factious domestic divisions, is exposed to disrespect abroad; and one party, if not both, is sure, sooner or later, to invoke foreign intervention. Nations thus tempted to interfere are not always able to resist the councils of seeming expediency and ungenerous ambition, although measures adopted under such influences seldom fail to be unfortu