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have not willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom. While I am sensible to the high compliment of a re-election, and duly grateful, as I trust, to Almighty God for having directed my countrymen to a right conclusion, as I think, for their own good, it adds nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may be disappointed or pained by the result."

Many delegations called to congratulate the President.

"Those who differ from us," he remarked to one, "will yet see that defeat was better for their own good than if they had been successful."

A quarter of a century has passed since the words were spoken, and people in the Southern as well as in the Northern States rejoice in the fulfilment of the prophecy.

The result of the election was an announcement to the world that the war was to go on till the last rebel had laid down his arms.

Congress reassembled on December 6th. In his message Mr. Lincoln said:

The public purpose to re-establish and maintain the national authority is unchanged, and, as we believe, unchangeable. It seems to me that no attempt at negotiation with the insurgent leader could result in any good. He would accept nothing short of severance of the Union-precisely what we will not and cannot give. His declarations to this effect are explicit and oft repeated. He does not attempt to deceive us. He affords us no excuse to deceive ourselves. Between him and us the issue is distinct, simple, and inflexible. It is an issue that can only be tried by war and decided by victory. If we yield, we are beaten. If the Southern people fail him, he is beaten. But what is true of him who heads the insurgent cause is not necessarily true of those who follow. Although he cannot reaccept the Union, they can. Some of them we know already desire peace and reunion. They can at any moment have peace simply by laying down their arms and submitting to national authority under the Constitution. . . . I mean simply to say that the war will cease on the part of the Government whenever it shall have ceased on the part of those who began it."

The Chief-justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Roger B. Taney, died. We have seen Mr. Lincoln referring to him, in connection with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, as a "house builder" working in conjunction with Franklin Pierce and Stephen A. Douglas. His private life had been without reproach, but his sympathies had been with the slave propaganda for the extension of that institution of servitude. His decisions upon the bench had been antagonistic to the spirit of the age. Instead of going to his grave beloved, honored, and reverenced, his death was regarded as a beneficent dispensation of divine Providence, in view of the great questions growing out of the war, which must be decided by the Supreme Court. The future welfare of the nation demanded decisions in correspondence with its new charter of liberty. Whom should the President appoint to such a responsible position? The friends of Mr. Chase presented his name.

"A chief-justice is needed," wrote Senator Charles Sumner, "whose position on the slavery question is already fixed, and who will not need argument of counsel to convert him."

Mr. Fessenden, who had succeeded Mr. Chase as Secretary of the Treasury, and Mr. Stanton thought Mr. Chase should be appointed.

"I shall be very shut pan about this matter," (") said Mr. Lincoln, using an obsolete military term in connection with a flintlock musket, such as he carried in the Black Hawk War. In loading a musket, the pan was first opened, "primed" with powder, then shut. The friends of Mr. Chase and the friends of other able jurists had "primed" Mr. Lincoln, but the "pan" would remain shut until he was ready to announce his choice. Mr. Chase had endeavored to secure the nomination as President, but Abraham Lincoln had no personal resentments. He gave him the appointment.

While General Sherman was planning a movement from Atlanta, General Hood, commanding the Confederate army in the West, was making arrangements to invade Tennessee. He thought Sherman would be compelled to hasten northward. One started eastward in the direction of Savannah; the other at the same time moved northward towards Nashville, held by Thomas. It was a remarkable spectacletwo great armies marching in opposite directions.

On December 16th Hood suffered a disastrous defeat. His troops were disheartened and scattered. Many of his soldiers deserted to their homes, never again to be marshalled for battle.

The army under Sherman reached the sea and opened communication with the war-ships. On the morning of December 23d it entered Savannah. Inspiring the message sent by Sherman to President Lincoln :

"I beg to present you a Christmas gift-the City of Savannah, with 150 heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, also about 25,000 bales of cotton."

There was joy in the White House on Christmas Eve. The newspapers throughout the country on Christmas morning contained the thrilling news. As the dawn betokens the coming day, so the defeat of Hood, the march of Sherman, the possession of Savannah, heralded approaching peace.

NOTES TO CHAPTER XXIV.

(1) Mrs. Frances D. Gage to Author, 1863. (2) Ibid.

(3) "Century Magazine," September, 1889.

(^) Ibid.

(*) D. R. Locke, "Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln," p. 450. (*) Ibid., p. 452.

(7) E. W. Andrews, "Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln," p. 507. (*) "Century Magazine," September. 1889.

(°) Ibid.

(10) Charles A. Dana, "Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln," p. 372. (11) "Century Magazine," September, 1889.

(12) Ibid.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE END OF SLAVERY.

ONGRESS was in session. The time had come for carrying out

CONG

the verdict of the people in regard to slavery. Senator Trumbull, Jan. 6, from the Joint Judiciary Committee, reported the Thirteenth 1865. Amendment to the Constitution:

"Section I. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

"Section II. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

Mr. Voorhees, member from Indiana, thought the time had not come for such an amendment, and opposed it. "When the sky," he said, "shall again be clear over our heads, a peaceful sun illuminating the land, and our great household of States all at home in harmony once more, then will be the time to consider what changes, if any, this generation desires to make in the work of Washington and Madison, and the several sages of our antiquity.”

Such was not the opinion of Mr. Rollins, of Missouri. "I have been a slave-holder," he said, "but I am no longer an owner of slaves, and I thank God for it. Missouri has adopted an amendment to her Constitution for the immediate emancipation of all slaves in the State. If the giving up of my slaves without complaint shall be a contribution upon my part to promote the public good, to uphold the Constitution of the United States, to restore peace and preserve the Union, if I had owned a thousand slaves they would cheerfully have been given up. We never can have entire peace as long as slavery remains as one of the recognized institutions of the country."

"We have," said Thaddeus Stevens, who had the amendment in charge, "suffered for slavery more than all the plagues of Egypt. More than the first-born of every household has been taken. We still

harden our hearts and refuse to let the people go. The scourge still continues; nor do I expect it to cease till we obey the behests of the Father of men. We are about to ascertain the national will by an amendment to the Constitution. If the gentlemen opposite will yield to the voice of God and humanity, and vote for it, I verily believe the sword of the destroying angel will be stayed, and this people be reunited. If we harden our hearts, and blood must still flow, may the ghosts of the slaughtered victims sit heavily upon the souls of those who cause it."

Two-thirds of those voting must favor the amendment to secure its passage. It was known that some of the Democratic members of the House were ready to vote for so beneficent a measure; but would there be a sufficient number?

Breathless the silence as the clerk called the roll-broken by a low murmur of approval when Mr. English, Democratic member from Connecticut, responded "Aye." The applause was repeated with increasing emphasis as other Democrats followed his example. The last name was called. One hundred and nineteen Ayes, fifty-six Noes-two more than the requisite number! The great transaction was accomplished. The hall rang with cheers. with cheers. Members stood upon their seats, mounted their desks, shouted their huzzas. The great audience in the galleries and crowding the doorways thundered its applause. Outside the Capitol cannon announced to President Lincoln, to the soldiers wasting away in the hospitals, to the people of Washington, that there was to be no more slavery in the land. In the evening a great crowd gathered around the White House. The President, responding to their call, said:

"I cannot but congratulate you, myself, the country, the whole world, upon this great moral victory."

In God's time and way the blow had been given, and slavery abolished.

President Lincoln, in 1860, cheerfully surrendered to Great Britain the two Confederate agents-Mason and Slidell, wrongfully seized by Commodore Wilkes. Mr. Mason had been courteously received in London by Lord John Russell as a private citizen, but England was not ready to recognize him as an agent of the Confederacy. Mr. Slidell, in Paris, had been accorded several interviews with Louis Napoleon, who said that his sympathies were with the South. He considered the re-establishment of the Union impossible, and final separation a mere question of time. The difficulty before him was to find a way to ex

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