boldly struck in his second inaugural, when he declared "with malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds,

to do all which may achieve a just and lasting peace among ourselves and among all nations."

In the midst of the fierce passions and bitter animosities growing out of the war, many thought him too mild and too forbearing; but his conviction was clear, and his determination firm, that when there was a sincere repentance, then there should be pardon and amnesty. In the face of those who sternly demanded punishment and confiscation, and the death of traitors and conspirators, he declared: "When a man is sincerely penitent for his misdeeds, and gives satisfactory evidence of it, he can safely be pardoned."

When the fiery and eloquent Henry Winter Davis, the stern, blunt, downright Ben Wade, and the unforgiving Thaddeus Stevens, demanded retaliation, confiscation, death, desolation, and bloody execution, the voice of Lincoln rose clear above the storm, firm, gentle, but powerful, like the voice of God. "With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right," he hushed the raging storm of passion, and brought back peace and reconciliation.

CHAPTER XXV.

VICTORY AND DEATH.

CONFERENCE OF LINCOLN, GRANT, AND

SHERMAN.-RICHMOND FALLS.-LEE Surrenders.-JEFFERSON DAvis Captured.-LINCOLN'S VISIT TO RICHMOND.-THE LAST DAY OF HIS LIFE.-HIS ASSASSINATION.-FUNERAL.-THE WORLD'S GRIEF.-MRS. LINCOLN DISTRACTED.—INJUSTICE TO HER.-Her Death.

LET us resume the narration of the progress of the Union arms. Fort Fisher, which guards the harbor of Wilmington, North Carolina, was captured by General Terry, on the 15th of January, 1865. Sherman, moving from Savannah, entered Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, on the 17th of February. From thence he moved to Goldsboro, North Carolina, and opened communication with General Schofield, who had, after the destruction of Hood's army at Nashville, been ordered east. The rebels under Hardee abandoned Charleston, and Admiral Dahlgren and General Foster took possession of the capital of South Carolina. General Lee appointed General Joe Johnston to command the forces which were trying to oppose the advance of Sherman, and at Bentonville there was a severe battle, but Johnston was compelled to retire; and now the Union forces were concentrating around Lee, and the end was rapidly approaching.

On the 3d of March, 1865, as is usual on the last night. of the sessions of Congress, the Executive with the Cabinet was in the President's room at the Capitol, to receive and act upon the numerous bills which pass during the last hurried hours of the session. Congress continued in session

from seven o'clock in the evening to eight o'clock on the morning of the 4th. It was a stormy, snowy night, but within all was bright, cheerful, and full of hope. While the President was thus waiting, and receiving the congratulations of senators, members of Congress, and other friends, a telegram came from General Grant to the Secretary of War, informing him that Lee had at last sought an interview, with the purpose of seeing whether any terms of peace could be agreed upon. The despatch was handed to the President. Reflecting a few moments, he wrote the following reply, which was then submitted to the Cabinet and sent:

'WASHINGTON, March 3, 1865, 12 P. M. "LIEUTENANT GENERAL GRANT:-The President directs me to say to you that he wishes you to have no conference with General Lee, unless it be for the capitulation of General Lee's army, or on some other minor and purely military matter. He instructs me to say that you are not to decide, discuss, or confer upon any political question. Such questions the President holds in his own hands, and will submit them to no military conferences or conventions. Meanwhile you are to press to the utmost your military advantages. EDWIN M. STANTON,

On the 27th of March, the President, by appointment, met Generals Grant and Sherman in the cabin of the steamer "Ocean Queen," lying in the James River, and not far from the headquarters of General Grant. This meeting has been appropriately made the subject of a great historical painting called "The Peace Makers," and the artist has very felicitously represented the prophetic rainbow spanning the boat, and shining in at the windows, where these remarkable men held their last conference. 1

The perfect harmony, earnest and cordial coöperation, and brotherly friendship between the great military leaders, Grant and Sherman, Sheridan and Meade, and their subordinates, was in striking contrast with the jealousy and quarrels of some of the President's earlier generals. He could not but recall the days of McClellan and others, when such

1. This painting by Healy was made for E. B. McCagg, Esq., of Chicago, and now hangs on the walls of the Calumet Club of that city.

quarrels were among the heaviest burdens he had to bear. It would be difficult to find in history three men more unlike physically and mentally, and yet of greater historic interest or more distinguished ability, than the statesman President, and Grant and Sherman. And, although so entirely unlike one another, each was a type of American character, and all had peculiarities not only distinctively American, but Western. Lincoln's towering form had been given dignity and repose by the great deeds and great thoughts to which he had given such eloquent expression. His rugged and strongly marked features, lately so deeply furrowed with care, anxiety, over-work, and responsibility, were now full of hope and confidence. He met the two great soldiers with the most grateful cordiality. With clear intelligence, he grasped the military situation, and listened with the most eager and profound attention to the details of the final moves which it was hoped would end the terrible game of

war.

Contrasting with the tall, towering form of Lincoln, was the short, sturdy, firm figure of the hero of Vicksburg, every feature and every movement expressing inflexible will and resolute determination. Also strikingly in contrast with these was Sherman, with his intellectual head, his keen restless eye, his nervous energy, his sharply outlined features, bronzed by that magnificent campaign from Chattanooga to Savannah, and now fresh from the conquest of North and South Carolina. "Hold Lee," he said to Grant, "in his fortified lines for two weeks; our wagons will be loaded, and we will start for Burksville. If Lee will remain in Richmond until I can reach Burksville, we will have him between our thumb and fingers." 1

1

1. The following most interesting letter from General Sherman to the author gives the details of this interview:

"Hon. I. N. ARNOLD, Chicago, Ill.

"WASHINGTON, D. C., November 28th, 1872. "THANKSGIVING DAY.

"My Dear Sir: I have just received your letter of November 26th, and it so happens that it comes to me on an official holiday, when I am at leisure, and at my house, where I keep the books of letters written by me during and since the civil war.

Sherman, with his army of eighty thousand men, as hardy and as brave as Cæsar's Gallic Legion, once in close communication with Grant, Lee would be "shut up in Richmond

My records during the war are quite complete, but since the war I have only retained copies of letters on purely official business, and I find no copy of the one you describe as having been lost in the great fire of Chicago last year. I regret this extremely, as in my official records I find but a bare allusion to the interview with Mr. Lincoln at City Point, in March, 1865, an account of which was contained in my former letter, and which you now desire me to repeat. I must do so entirely from memory, and you must make all allowances, for nearly eight eventful years have intervened.

"On the 21st of March, 1865, the army which I commanded reached Goldsboro, North Carolina, and there made junction with the forces of Generals Schofield and Terry, which had come up from the coast at Newbern and Wilmington.

"My army was hard up for food and clothing, which could only reach us from the coast, and my chief attention was given to the reconstruction of the two railroads which meet at Goldsboro, from Newbern and Wilmington, so as to re-clothe the men, and get provisions enough with which to continue our march to Burksville, Virginia, where we would come into communication with General Grant's army, then investing Richmond and Petersburg. I had written to General Grant several times, and had received letters from him, but it seemed to me all important that I should have a personal interview. Accordingly, on the 25th of March, leaving General Schofield in command, I took the first locomotive which had come over the repaired railroad, back to Newbern and Morehead City, where I got the small steamer 'Russia' to con. vey me to City Point. We arrived during the afternoon of March 27th, and I found General Grant and staff occupying a neat set of log huts, on a bluff overlooking the James River. The General's family was with him. We had quite a long and friendly talk, when he remarked that the President, Mr. Lincoln, was near by in a steamer lying at the dock, and he proposed that we should call at once. We did so, and found Mr. Lincoln on board the Ocean Queen.' We had met in the early part of the war, and he recognized me, and received me with a warmth of manner and expression that was most grateful. We then sat some time in the after-cabin, and Mr. Lincoln made many inquiries about the events which attended the march from Savannah to Goldsboro, and seemed to enjoy the humorous stories about 'our bummers,' of which he had heard much. When in lively conversation, his face brightened wonderfully; but If the conversation flagged, his face assumed a sad and sorrowful expression.

"General Grant and I explained to him that my next move from Goldsboro would bring my army, increased to eighty thousand men by Schofield's and Terry's reinforcements, in close communication with General Grant's army, then investing Lee in Richmond, and that unless Lee could effect his escape, and make junction with Johnston in North Carolina, he would soon be shut up in Richmond with no possibility of supplies, and would have to surrender. Mr. Lincoln was extremely interested in this view of the case, and when we explained that Lee's only chance was to escape, join Johnston, and, being then between me in North Carolina and Grant in Virginia, could choose which to fight. Mr. Lincoln seemed unusually impressed with this, but General Grant explained that at the very moment of our conversation, General Sheridan was passing his cavalry across James River from the north to the south, that he would, with this cavalry, so extend his left below Petersburg as to meet the South Shore Road, and that if Lee should let go' his fortified lines, he (Grant) would follow him so close that he could not possibly fall on me alone in North Carolina. I, in like manner, expressed the fullest confidence that my army in North Carolina was willing to cope with Lee and Johnston combined, till Grant could come up. But we both