"Mr. President, I am directed to read it to you," said Piatt. "Let me see it; I can read," said Mr. Lincoln.

"Piatt, don't you think that you and Schenck are squealing, like pigs, before you are hurt?"

"No, Mr. President."

"Why, am I not the court of appeal? Do you think I am going to have injustice done Schenck?"

"Mr. President, allow me to say that before the appeal can be heard a soldier's reputation will be blasted by a packed court."

"Come, now, Piatt, you and I are lawyers, and I know the meaning

of the word 'packed.' I don't want to hear it from your lips again. What is the matter with the court?"

"It is illegally organized by General Halleck."

"But General Halleck's act is mine."

“Mr. President, I beg your pardon. The 'Rules and Regulations' direct that in cases of this sort you shall select the court. You cannot delegate that to a subordinate officer any more than you can the pardoning power. Here is the article," said Piatt, opening the "Rules and Regulations."

"That is a point. Do you know, Piatt, that I have been so busy that I never have read the 'Rules and Regulations? Give me the book, and I will read them to-night."

"Yes, Mr. President, but in the mean time General Schenck will be put under arrest for disobedience, and the mischief will be done." "That's so. Here, give me a pencil."

The President tore off part of a blank sheet from the protest and wrote the following:

"All proceedings before the court-martial convened to try General Milroy are suspended until further orders." (")

The President's sense of justice and right settled the question. He was commander-in-chief. Stanton had overstepped his authority.

The Confederates were in need of percussion-caps; they also wanted quinine, a remedy for fever-and-ague, which commanded a very high price. Among those arrested for attempting to supply them with articles contraband of war was Rev. Henry M. Luckett, a Methodist minister past seventy years of age. He was tried by court-martial and sentenced to be shot. The day before the one fixed for his death his daughter, Mrs. Bullitt, of Kentucky; Hon. Henry M. Lane, Senator from Indiana; Daniel W. Voorhees, member of Congress from that State, and several other gentlemen, entered the executive chamber.

"We have called," said Senator Lane, "to ask you, Mr. President, to reprieve Henry M. Luckett, who is sentenced to be shot to-morrow. He is an old man. He has done wrong, but there are extenuating circumstances. He is poor. He has been overpersuaded by Confederate friends."

The President made no reply. The daughter of the condemned man approached. He turned to hear what she had to say. She pleaded earnestly for her father's life.

"Lane, what did you say the man's name was?" said the President, breaking in, seemingly awakening from a dream.

"Luckett."

"Not Henry M. Luckett ?"

"Yes; that is my father's name," Mrs. Bullitt replied.

"Didn't he preach in Springfield years ago!"

"No, no; there will be no shooting in this case. Henry M. Luckett ! There must be something wrong with him, or he wouldn't get into such a scrape as this."

The President dictated a despatch to General Hurlburt, in command of the Department at Memphis, directing him to suspend the execution till further orders.

"No; we will have no shooting in this case," he repeated, as if in soliloquy. The grateful petitioners took their departure, the daughter of the reprieved man laughing and crying by turns over the joy that had come to her. (*)

TRIBUTE

GETTYSBURG MONUMENT.

Congress was once more in session, listening to the annual message of the President. The year had been marked by great events. Dec. 7. Mr. Lincoln said:

'Eleven months having now passed, we are permitted to take another review. The rebel borders are pressed back still farther, and by the complete opening of the Mississippi the country dominated by the Rebellion is divided into distinct parts, with no political communication between them. Tennessee and Arkansas have been substantially cleared of insurgent control, and influential citizens in each-owners of slaves and advocates of slavery at the beginning of the Rebellion-now declare openly for emancipation in their respective States. Of those States not included in the Emancipation Proclamation-Maryland and Missouri-neither of which three years ago would tolerate any restraint upon the extension of slavery into new Territories, only dispute now as to the best mode of removing it within their own limits."

The proposition to employ negro troops had aroused much opposi

tion. The President had patiently waited for the time when he could use them as soldiers. General Butler had enlisted a regiment of free negroes in New Orleans in September, 1862. But negroes who had been slaves were also enlisting. President Lincoln's message on this subject read:

"Of those who were slaves at the beginning of the war, fully one hundred thousand are now in the United States military service. About one-half of these actually bear arms in the ranks, thus giving the double advantage of taking so much labor from the insurgent cause, and supplying the places which otherwise must be filled with so many white men. So far as tested, it is difficult to say that they are not as good soldiers as any."

All the predictions that the slaves would cut their masters' throats; that they were cowards and would run at the sound of a hostile shot, had been proven false. The enlistment of so many negroes made the men who were opposing the war very angry, but gave great satisfaction to the loyal people of the country.

The President presented a plan by which the seceded States might be restored to the Union. The message was accompanied by a proclamation which offered pardon and amnesty.

“He has struck another great blow," said Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts.

"It is," remarked Mr. Boutwell, from the same State, "a very able and shrewd paper. It has great points of popularity, and it is right." "I shall live to see slavery ended!" the gleeful words of Owen Lovejoy.

"God bless old Abe! I am one of the radicals who have always believed in him!" shouted Mr. Blow, member from Missouri.

"The message is highly satisfactory," the more quiet remark of Senator Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland.

There were few, if any, dissenting voices. Senator Sumner, who had been strenuous in maintaining his own theory of reconstruction, manifested his pleasure. Many members of Congress visited the White House to express their thanks and appreciation of what the President had done.

NOTES TO CHAPTER XX.

(1) Zachariah Chandler, quoted in "Every-day Life of Abraham Lincoln," p. 598. (*) James B. Rusling, Lecture before the Young Men's Christian Association, Trenton, N. J., 1892.

(') James B. Fry, "Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln,” p. 402.

(*) "Every-day Life of Abraham Lincoln," p. 599.

(*) Edward McPherson to Author.

Не

(*) Edward Everett was a native of Dorchester, Mass., born April 11, 1794. graduated at Harvard University, 1811, when but sixteen years old. He studied theology, and became pastor of the Brattle Street Unitarian Church at the age of twenty. In 1819 he became Professor of Greek in Harvard University; was member of Congress, 182535; Governor of Massachusetts four years, 1836-40. A law restricting the sale of intoxicating liquors in quantities less than fifteen gallons, passed by the Whig Party, created a revolution in public sentiment upon the question of temperance, which caused his defeat for a fifth term by one vote. He was appointed President of Harvard University, 1846, continuing till 1849, when he succeeded Daniel Webster as Secretary of State. He became United States Senator, 1853, remaining till May, 1864. Mr. Everett was renowned for his scholarship, erudition, and oratory. An attempt was made by the "Mount Vernon Association" of women to purchase the estate of Washington on the banks of the Potomac. Funds were needed, and Mr. Everett, with a desire to promote so worthy an object, prepared a lecture upon Washington, which was given in most of the cities of the Union. The proceeds were devoted to its purchase. He also contributed a series of articles to the New York "Ledger," by which many thousand dollars were obtained. He wrote a biography of Daniel Webster and edited his speeches. Mr. Everett was nominated as candidate for Vice-president in 1860, on a ticket with John Bell, of Tennessee, as President. He supported President Lincoln in 1864, and was one of the electors of Massachu setts. He was selected as orator at the dedication of the Gettysburg monument. He was for many years editor of the "North American Review." He has been justly regarded as one of the foremost scholars and orators of his time.-Author.

(') Donn Piatt, "Memorials of Men who Saved the Nation," p. 40. (*) D. W. Voorhees, "Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln,” p. 357.