Page images
PDF
EPUB

resented in the convention; to the rights of all the States, and Territories, and the people of the nation; to the inviolability of the Constitution, and to the perpetual union, harmony and prosperity of all, I am most happy to cooperate for the practical success of the principles declared by the convention.

Your obliged friend and fellow-citizen,

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

We have thus followed this great statesman, this kindhearted, genial man, this uncouth but warm-hearted Western pioneer, from his obscure home in the wilderness to his nomination to the highest office in the gift of the nation. We have now to speak of him after four years of varied experience in this office. We shall endeavor to do so without fear or favor.

CHAPTER V.

THE PRESIDENT.

The hour. Mr. Lincoqn's reluctance to begin hostililies. The temper of the people and of Cougress. The battle of Bull Ruu. Preperations for a portable struggle. War meacsures. Mr. Lincoln not responsible for them. The slavery question. Mr. Lindoln's comprmi.e. Emancipation bill. The Emancipation Proclamation Personal appearance and habits of the President. Finalcial measures. the Union. The Confederate election. The end.

Determanation to restore

In reviewing the career of President Lincoln during his past four years of office we must not only bear in mind what lets our previous opinions were, but as for

public opinion and the acts of Congress have attended to influence its conduct.

Taking all these into proper consideration we have frequent occasions as we go along to admire the profound patriotism and practical wisdom and common sense which has distinguished his Presidential term.

First of all, was it or was it not wise in Mr. Lincoln to call for 75,000 troops on the 15th of April, 1861, and by this act accept the gage of battle which the bombardment of Fort Sumter had thereon drawn. It would scarcely be worth while to assume this question which the nation itself has answered so often, were there not left multitudes of our fellow citizens who still believe that Mr. Lincoln inaugerated this war, notwithstanding the most direct proofs to the contrary.

Now wherein was Mr. Lincoln to blame? He was duly elected President of the United States and took his oath of office at a junction where the stoutest mind might fairly have quailed from the task before it.

The Southern States seeing in his election the triumph of a party whose principles were objectionable to them, and forgetting that the limited power of a pres dent must ever restrict him in time of peace from doing them any harm, had resolved to strike for their independence. Mr. Lincoln's duty was plain. The right of revolution he here denied, when he said in his speech of January 12, 1858, quoted on a previous page, Any people may, when having the power, have the right." He had either to assume all the responsibilities of admitting the doctrine of peaceful secession, or open the door to a civil war that

might not only last for many years, but lead in the end to military ascendency and the loss of our own liberties at home. It was a moment of eventful hesitation. During this period the news came of Sumter's fall, and the entire North was raised to a pitch of intense excitement. The people were lashed into fury, and men asked each other impatiently if Mr. Lincoln intended to submit to this thing any longer. It was with extreme reluctance that Honest Abe at last gave the signal. It was only when all other argume ts had failed that the last of all arguments was employed, the argument of brute force, of war, war upon our brethren, maddened into fury by their own groundless apprehensions.

Had Mr.

Mr. Lincoln felt as we all did at the time, that the war was a mere bagatelle, and would soon be over. The 75,000 troops were expected to awe the South into an attitude of reason, even without striking a blow. They were only called out for three months. Excited meetings held all over the North in support of the government, and denunciation of suspe.ted secessionists, gave the most positive proof that the people were for strong measures. Lincoln acted in contradiction to this state of feeling, he would have been false to his cffice and his oath. It was not until the 4th of May that three years volunteers were called for. Meanwhile, the popular demonstrations for coercion were too unmistaken. Flags were raised, newspapers compelled to change their tone, public speakers called to order, and everything made to run in Union channels. On the 4th of July an extra sesssion of Congress was called, when the President recommended the

raising of 400,000 men, and $400,000,000. The battles of
Phillipi and Big Bethel had been fought; the war was in-
evitable. If Mr. Lincon had been the rankest of secession-
ists the war would have gone on just the same.
The tem-
per of Congress demonstrated this. Had he even chosen
to veto the war measures it passed, they would have been
passed again over his head. How then can the charge
of inciting this war be held against Mr. Lincoln? The
thing is untenable.

The events of the fortnight succeeding the meeting of Congress must be still fresh in every American mind. On the 21st of July the battle of Bull Run was fought. Here comes a pause in history. Both parties at once became aware that the struggle was to be one of life and death. It was to be no armed mob on one side, and a sheriff's posse comitatus on the other. Well-trained armies were to meet each other in strategic fields, and battle perhaps for many a year for union or dissolution. Still the majority of the people and with them the President and his cabinet believed that a few months preparation would fit our armies for the work of quick triumph. If Mr. Lincoln believed otherwise, if he foresaw that years might pass away before peace was restored, if he caught but a single glimpse of the "many possible phases into which civil war might grow," if he remembered that while we were making preparation the enemy was doing the same, he was guilty of a great wrong in not making the people better informed. Then, if they saw fit, they could either have gone on as they have done, or relinquished the Union at the start, and had done with it. But we have no reason

to suppose that Mr. Lincoln saw farther than others did in these matters. Indeed, it was impossible to foresee, for both the temper of the South and its resources for war were hidden from us. And the temper of the North was to unequivocal to permit us to believe she would ever have consented to any other course than the one she adopted.

the

Says Mr. Alex. Delmar, the biographer of General McClellan "Before the breaking out of the war, there were, in the first wild days of national excitement, but two parties-those for and those against the South-or, Secessionists and Unionists. No one stopped to think of many possible phases into which civil war might grow. It was expected that it would end in a few days with an inevitable re-establishment of the national authority, and that consequently, any man who had proved so treacherous as to raise his voice in favor of the enemy, would ever afterward be pointed at as a traitor. So there were only two sides to the question-Union or Secession." *

This furnishes the key to the first part of Mr. Lincoln's administration. He had either to be for or against the South, either for Union or Secession. At this period the questions of expatiation, confiscation, amnesty, disposal of fugitive slaves, conscription, suppression of spoken and printed discontent at home, emancipation, national debt, occupation of conquered territory, &c., &c., had not been touched upon. But during that time, when the army of the Potomac under Mc Clellan was being organized for an earnest contest, these matters began to loom forth from amidst the terrible confusion of interests and revulsion of * Life of Geo B. Mc Clellan, Published by T. R, DAWLEY, N. Y.

« PreviousContinue »