MY

III.

GEORGE W. JULIAN.

Y first meeting with Mr. Lincoln was in January, 1861, when I visited him at his home in Springfield.

I had a curiosity to see the famous "rail-splitter," as he was then familiarly called, and as a memberelect of the Thirty-seventh Congress I desired to form some acquaintance with the man who was destined to play a conspicuous part in the impending national crisis. Although I had zealously supported him in the canvass, and was strongly impressed by the

grasp of thought and aptness of expression which marked his great debate with Douglas, yet, as a thorough-going Free Soiler and a member of the Radical wing of Republicanism, my prepossessions were against him. He was a Kentuckian, and a conservative Whig, who had supported General Taylor in 1848, and General Scott four years later, when the Whig party finally sacrificed both its character and its life on the altar of slavery. His nomination, moreover, had been secured through the diplomacy of conservative Republicans, whose mor

bid dread of "abolitionism" unfitted them, as I believed, for leadership in the battle with slavery which had now become inevitable, while the defeat of Mr. Seward had been to me a severe disappointment and a real personal grief. Still, I did not wish to do Mr. Lincoln the slightest injustice, while I hoped and believed his courage and firmness would prove equal to the emergency.

On meeting him, I found him far better-looking than the campaign pictures had represented. These, as a general rule, were wretched caricatures. His face, when lighted up in conversation, was not unhandsome, and the kindly and winning tones of his voice pleaded for him, as did the smile which played about his rugged features. He was full of anecdote and humor, and readily found his way to the hearts of those who enjoyed a welcome to his fireside. His face, however, was sometimes marked by that touching expression of sadness which became so generally noticeable in the following years. I was much pleased with our first Republican Executive, and returned home more fully inspired than ever with the purpose to sustain him to the utmost in facing the duties of his great office.

The chief purpose of this visit, however, related to another matter. The rumor was then current and generally credited, that Simon Cameron and Caleb B. Smith were to be made Cabinet ministers, and I

desired to enter my protest against such a movement. Mr. Lincoln heard me patiently, but made no committal; and the subsequent selection of these representatives of Pennsylvania and Indiana Republicanism, along with Seward and Chase, illustrated the natural tendency of his mind to mediate between opposing forces. This was further illustrated a little later when some of his old Whig friends pressed the appointment of an incompetent and unfit man for an important position. When I remonstrated against it, Mr. Lincoln replied: "There is much force in what you say, but, in the balancing of matters, I guess I shall have to appoint him." This "balancing of matters" was a source of infinite vexation during his administration, as it has been to his successors; but it was then easier to criticise this policy than to point the way to any practicable method of avoiding it.

I did not see Mr. Lincoln again till the day of his inauguration, when he entered the Senate-chamber arm-in-arm with Mr. Buchanan. The latter was so withered and bowed with age that in contrast with the towering form of his successor he seemed little more than half a man. The public curiosity to see the President-elect reached its climax as he made his appearance on the east portico of the Capitol. All sorts of stories had been told and believed about

his personal appearance. His character had been

grossly misrepresented and maligned in both sections of the Union; and the critical condition of the country naturally whetted the appetite of men of all parties to see and hear the man who was now the central figure of the Republic. The tone of moderation, tenderness, and good-will which breathed through his inaugural speech made a profound impression in his favor; while his voice, though not very strong or full-toned, rang out over the acres of people before him with surprising distinctness, and, I think, was heard in the remotest parts of his audience.

The pressure for office during the first few months of the new administration was utterly unprecedented and beggared all description. It was a sort of epidemic, and Mr. Lincoln, at times, was perfectly appalled by it. It gave him no pause, but pursued him remorselessly night and day; and there were moments when his face was the picture of an indescribable weariness and despair. It jarred upon his sentiment of patriotism, when the country was just entering upon the awful struggle for its life, and seemed to make him sick at heart. Sometimes he lost his temper. An instance of this occurred soon after his inauguration, which also illustrates his fidelity to his friends. A delegation of California Republicans called on him with a proposed political slate covering the chief offices on the Pacific coast. Their programme was opposed, in part, by Senator