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for, no matter how beclouded it may be, it will come forth (the longer hidden the brighter it will shine), it will enlighten the vision and gladden the hearts of all who desire light and not darkness. Our way is gloomy, and it may become blacker and more murky; but, sir, the light of God's providence will make all clear yet. To be sure,we may not have a bonfire at the beginning of every day's progress, but we shall find illuminations often enough, if we will only keep steadily on the track, be cool and calm. in the face of danger, and have faith in the future. We shall come out of all this seeming chaos and confusion a wiser and a better people. There is no doubt that in such a storm as that which is brewing in our country, there must be many wrecks and much suffering; much of valuable matter will have to go overboard; but enough will be saved to make a good voyage yet, and, I hope, to set the ship all right for another cruise.

"Let the men to whom are intrusted the interests of the people illuminate these truths, and think more of the nation than of themselves. Let them review their oaths of office, and consider how fearfully responsible they are for all their acts in this crisis. Thus influenced and directed, the common enemy will be beaten down, and order restored. Let the people know the facts, let them see the danger; but let every effort be made to allay public fears, to inspire the masses with confidence and hope, and, above all, to frown down every attempt to create a panic.

"Thus the public pulse will beat healthily, and we can safely judge of and contend with the disease which is developing itself in the social and political body of the nation.

"There is, no doubt, sir, a great conflict for principle impending, and we must be, as our forefathers were, in the right, and success is certain. The Almighty will bring us safely

through this, if we only keep cool, and maintain the right patiently and fearlessly. I have no fears for the result, and I don't intend to have any, no matter how things work."

I began my conversation with Mr. Lincoln without intent or purpose. I had no sympathy with him, nor with the Republican party of that day; yet I shook his hand, impressed, at parting, with the conviction that Abraham Lincoln had a mission to perform, and that he would perform it according to his convictions of justice and duty. I had long thought that the gathering corruptions in political matters required, for their cure, treatment of a more positive and thorough character than our national doctors had been dealing in for many years past; and I now began to think that the new treatment-under the new school and practice of the President-would, although it might possibly be administered with a parable-like story or a pleasant joke, prove any thing but pleasant in its operation to some patients.

In speaking of this interview to my father, on my return to Ohio, I said,—

"I have seen the man who is, under Providence, to control and direct the crisis and the consequences in this our day of trial and tribulation. A man combining the firmness (which may lie concealed under a 'method,' but still is firmness) of General Jackson, with the amiability of Henry Clay; a man not one jot or tittle less imbued with patriotism and love of country than those great and good men were. Abraham Lincoln, if I am not mistaken in him, will disappoint two sets of men,-those who voted for him, thinking to control him in his administration, and those who voted against him, thinking he was not the man to master the situation of affairs and bring order out of chaos."

My father was an old-line Democrat, of the Jefferson and Jackson stamp; and I shall never forget his look when saying to me, the tears choking his utterance :

"May God grant that your impressions prove prophecies! We want an honest man now, and not a mere politician, to direct us. These are evil times, and evil men are at work, for evil purposes. Honesty and truth may set us right, and if Mr. Lincoln will forget party and self, and serve his God and his country, I may yet be spared the sad fate of going down to a grave dug in the soil of a bleeding and a dismembered country. O party! party! what a hydra-headed monster thou art! We must kill partyspirit, my son, or party-spirit will kill the nation."

My father died before the battle of Bull Run took place, and before that next cruel thing was done,—the cowardly pleading for peace so basely put forth by the Breckinridge wing of the Democratic party. Thank God! these two inflictions were spared the old man, who loved his country, its history, and its institutions, truly and deeply, and who could have conceived of nothing so entirely wicked as to countenance even the supposition that the United States of America could ever become the dis-united States; and, worse than all, that a Democrat could have been found base enough to say to those who were holding the knife at the throat of their bleeding country, “Let them alone; let them go! We know they are murderers and assassins, who have struck a deadly blow at their lifegiving mother; but we may want them in the future. Let them alone; let them go!"

Let any disinterested man compare the subject-matter of these remarks of Mr. Lincoln, with his course from the time he left Springfield until he arrived in Washington City, together with his suggestions and actions since. Let

them, I repeat, compare what has gone before of his acts and deeds, with what he is doing, and they cannot fail, I think, to acknowledge that his whole course has been consistent and honest, and so shaped as to render available "the events and circumstances" which have arisen out of the acts of the Catilines of the South, and the consequences thus forced upon the Administration.

That Mr. Lincoln is a joker, we know; and that he is a serious thinker, and an honest man, we know also. That this same "levity" (as some white-haired sinners call it) of Mr. Lincoln has been the "nice fence" with which he has foiled many a well-aimed thrust made at his arguments by his opponents, can plainly be seen by any man "who looks through the deeds" as well as the "words of men." The following quotation may not be inapplicable to our subject:

"He hath a right ready wit and a queasy mode of raillery that to querulous questioners may not sit so nicely as might be on shoulders somewhat bowed with dignities and honors. But yet, beshrew me, his mirth has meaning in it, and I would rather quarrel with than miss it. Ah, he's a merry man, ay, a merry and a proper; and for one like me, whose crutch and spectacles will sometimes chide the quips and quillets of heartier days, there can be no better gossip to counsel, or crack a nut or joke withal, than our good keeper of the seals and parchments."

Melchior Muhlenburg, the patriot parson of the Revolution, said,

"In this, the morn of Freedom's day,

There is a time to fight and pray."*

*Extract from "The Wagoner of the Alleghanies," by Thomas Buchanan Read.

Mr. Lincoln thinks, I suppose, that there is a time to joke and pray; and if, as his detractors affirm, he joked all the way to Washington, if he did not pray also (as we believe he did, and fervently, too), he at least desired the prayers of others, as the circumstances recorded in the following poem will show. It is from the pen of a lady of Philadelphia, Mrs. Anna Bache.

Lincoln at Springfield, 1861.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

THERE stood a man in the West Countrie,
Slender and tall and gaunt was he;

His form was not cast in a courtier's mould,
But his eye was bright, and his bearing bold.
A crowd had gather'd to hear him speak,
And the blood surged up in his sunburn'd cheek;
Familiar with toil was his outstretch'd hand,
For a man of the people was he,

Who had learn'd to obey, ere call'd to command.—
Such men are the pride of the West Countrie.

"My friends,-elected by your choice,
From the long-cherish'd home I go,
Endear'd by heaven-permitted joys,
Sacred by heaven-permitted woe.

I go, to take the helm of state,

While loud the waves of faction roar,
And by His aid, supremely great,
Upon whose will all tempests wait,
I hope to steer the bark to shore.
Not since the days when Washington
To battle led our patriots on,
Have clouds so dark above us met,
Have dangers dire so close beset.

&

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