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issued his call for seventy-five thousand men. The writer of this sketch was then pastor of a church in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The sixth regiment of the Massachusetts militia had its headquarters there, though some of its companies were in towns twenty miles away. Colonel Watson, who commanded it, received the call for his regiment at five o'clock P.M. The next morning at 7:30 o'clock the whole regiment were at the depot at Lawrence, and took the cars for Washington. Its way to Washington was an ovation, except at Baltimore, where it was met by a rebel mob and four of its members killed. The first to fall was Sumner H. Needham, a member of the writer's congregation. His body was sent back, and early the next week the first funeral services occasioned by the war were held in his honor, his pastor preaching the sermon, and the other clergymen of the city taking part in the services. The text was from Heb. xi.,4, "He being dead yet speaketh." "He speaks," said his pastor, "from that scene of conflict with a silent yet terrible eloquence which is heard all over our great country, and which stirs the moral indignation of twenty millions of freemen at home and ten times that number abroad. That blow that broke in upon his brain struck upon the conscience of a nation. That wound has a tongue speaking with a trumpet of thunder among the northern hills and on the western prairies." And it did speak, and freemen answered in quick response to the full number of the call.

The others who fell in Baltimore were Charles A. Taylor, a stranger, who enlisted in Boston; Luther C. Ladd and Addison O. Whiting, of Lowell, Massachusetts.

The spirit of this regiment was the spirit of the north. The death of these men was the death of four brothers, which called the whole family to sorrow and self-defense.

The night before Mr. Lincoln made this call, Mr. Douglas, at the instance of Mr. Ashman, of Massachusetts, seconded by Mrs. Douglas, called upon Mr. Lincoln and assured him of his sympathy and coöperation. Mr. Lincoln read him the call, which he had just written. He approved it heartily, only he said it should be for two hundred thousand instead of seventy

five thousand. The next morning a dispatch went with the call assuring the country of Mr. Douglas' approval. Thence onward till Mr. Douglas' death he coöperated with Mr. Lincoln.

On the seventeenth of April Virginia seceded. North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas soon followed.

In July the battle of Bull Run was fought, which proved a rout of the Union army, and was misleading to the rebels in suggesting to them that they had not an equal foc in the soldiers of the north. This mistake led ultimately to a more complete destruction of the south, as it continued the war so long. Over confidence was the weakness of the rebel cause in the beginning. It held them to their evil work till the south was a wreck, while the north was steadily growing in numbers and wealth.

An extra session of Congress was called, and the president was authorized to call out half a million of soldiers and use five hundred millions of dollars. This meant the preservation of the Union.

The first thing the north had to do was to organize and drill its army. It was nearly two years before this was completely done. Many officers had to be tested. period many reverses came to the Union cause.

During this But all the time Mr. Lincoln was growing in public estimation and endearing himself to the people as the preserver of that country of which Washington was the father. And all the time the patriotism of the loyal people was developing into a great and permanent passion, which was willing to make all sacrifices for the national honor and cause.

During this most trying time of the war, France and England, to their great disgrace, gave sympathy and aid to the rebellion and the war for slavery. It was a wicked and cruel support of barbarity and crime, done in the greed of gain and the desire to see the United States broken to pieces in the hope that they might gather up the fragments. Slow will the people of the north be to forget this cruel affiliation with rebellion and repudiation of all just principles of inter-national honor and fraternity.

Through all the earlier period of the war, Mr. Lincoln took

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all possible pains to express his kindly feeling to the people of the south, and that he had no purpose of destroying slavery if it could be avoided. He had taken his oath to maintain the constitution. If it could be done, he was resolved on doing it. If the constitution could not be preserved, then he would let that go and save the nation.

Many of his friends were greatly tried that he would make no movement against slavery. It was quite a common feeling among them that it was impossible to preserve the Union and slavery. The old abolitionists did not think it desirable to preserve the Union with slavery in it. Many sympathized with them. But Mr. Lincoln had studied prayerfully his duty as a president sworn to obey the constitution. His conclusion was, that as a military necessity and a last resort, he could and must destroy slavery. So he said in a letter to a friend: "When early in the war General Fremont attempted military emancipation, I forbade it because I did not then think it an indispensable necessity. When, a little later, General Cameron, then secretary of war, suggested the arming of the blacks, I objected because I did not then think it an indispensable necessity. When, a little later, General Hunter attempted military emancipation, I again forbade it, because I did not yet think the indispensable necessity had come. When in March and May and July, 1862, I made earnest and successive appeals to the border states to favor compensated emancipation, I believed the indispensable necessity for military emancipation and arming the blacks would come unless averted by that measure. They declined the proposition; and I was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of either surrendering the Union, and with it the constitution, or of laying a strong hand upon the colored element. I chose the latter."

When urged to emancipate the slaves, by a body of clergymen, he said: "Whatever shall appear to be God's will I will do."

In the middle of the summer of 1862, when things appeared to be going badly enough, he concluded that he must "change his tactics or lose his game." So he set about preparing an emancipation proclamation. About the first of August, he

called a cabinet meeting. None knew what they came for. He told them that he had called them to read to them a proclamation he had resolved to make, and ask them to criticise it. Mr. Chase "wished the language were stronger." Mr. Blair deprecated the policy. Mr. Seward approved, but did not think this the opportune time, and gave his reasons. So it waited yet longer. Before they separated, he said in a low, solemn voice. "I have promised my God that I will do it." Mr. Chase, who was near him, asked if he understood him. He replied, "1 made a solemn vow before God, that if General Lee should be driven back from Pennsylvania, I would crown the result by a declaration of freedom to the slaves."

So September 22, 1862, the proclamation was issued, to take effect January 1, 1863. After it was done he said: "What I did, I did after a very full deliberation, and under a heavy and solemn sense of responsibility. I can only trust in God I have made no mistake." Two years later, he said: "As affairs have turned, it is the central act of my administration, and the great event of the nineteenth century."

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After this proclamation, the cause of the Union began to mend. Within a year a hundred thousand colored men were openly allied with the army and the cause, and over half of them carrying muskets. Victory became assured; it was only a question of time. Money and men, and ability and loyalty in the leaders and commanders, were now abundant.

In due time Mr. Lincoln was re-elected, and from that time on the tide of sentiment and events was more and more assured in his behalf. The war became a succession of triumphant victories. At his recommendation, Congress passed an amendment to the constitution abolishing slavery in the United States. His great generals, Grant, Sherman and Sheridan, now had everything well in hand. The surrender of General Lee soon followed, which put an end to the great rebellion.

But in this giddy moment of glory, when the whole loyal north were praising him, he was stealthily approached by John Wilkes Booth, at a theatre, where he had gone with his family, to forget for an hour his burdening cares, and shot in the back

and side of his head. It was a fatal wound.

He lived in a

state of unconsciousness till morning, and at twenty-two minutes past seven o'clock, April 15, 1865, breathed his last.

The nation which yesterday was jubilant with an abounding joy, was now in tears. Oh that terrible day! How our lips were struck dumb, and our hearts were palsied! Never such a day in America! So the rebellion ended in the martyrdom of the grandest soul of the nation he had saved. How he loved his country and kind! How he loved the people of the south who would not then accept his love, but have since learned that it was sincere, wise and noble. What blessings have come to his country and to humanity and especially to the redeemed south, by his great, honest, hearty life!

THE GRAVE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

What was mortal of the great and good martyr president rests in Oak Ridge cemetery, Springfield, Illinois, about two miles out from the city. The tomb in which his body reposes is in the base of the National Lincoln monument, which is one of the finest in this country. The base on which the obelisk rests is seventy-two feet six inches square, with a projection in front and rear for the catacomb and memorial hall, making a length of one hundred and nineteen feet, six inches. The height of the base from the terrace at the bottom, is fifteen feet and ten inches. Around the top of the base is a rich, strong railing. A finely wrought pedestal, twenty-eight feet four inches across, with four elegant pieces of bronze statuary at the corners, sustains the obelisk. The obelisk is square, eighty-two feet and six inches high from the base. The statue of Lincoln stands in front of the obelisk on a separate pedestal, and is eleven feet in height, and stands thirty-five feet and six inches above the terrace. The whole height from the terrace to the apex of the obelisk is ninety-eight feet and four and a half inches. The statue holds in its right hand an open scroll representing the

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