heavy, that no hours of my day are better employed than those which thus bring me again into direct contact with the people. All serves to renew in me a clearer and more vivid image of that great popular assemblage out of which I sprung, and to which, at the end of two years, I must return." To such an extreme did he carry this, and such weariness did it cause him, that, at the end of four years, he who had been one of the strongest men living, was no longer strong or vigorous. But he always had a goodnatured story, even for his tormentors. Once, when a Kentucky farmer wanted him at a critical period of the Emancipation question to exert himself and turn the whole machinery of government to aid him in recovering two slaves, President Lincoln said this reminded him of Jack Chase, the captain of a western steamboat. It is a terrible thing to steer a boat down the roaring rapids, where the mistake of an inch may cause wreck, and it requires the extreme attention of the pilot. One day, when the boat was plunging and wallowing along the boiling current, and Jack at the wheel was using all care to keep in the perilous channel, a boy pulled his coat-tail and cried, “Say, Mister Captain! I wish you'd stop your boat a minute. I've lost my apple overboard." In self-conscious "deportment," Mr. Lincoln was utterly deficient; in true unconscious dignity, he was unsurpassed. He would sit down on the stone coping outside the White House to write on his card the directions by which a poor man might be relieved from his sorrow, looking as he did so as if he were sitting on the pavement; or he would actually lie down on the grass beside a common soldier, and go over his papers with him, while his carriage waited, and great men gathered around; but no man ever dared to be impertinent, or unduly familiar with him. Once an insolent officer accused him to his face of injustice, and he arose, lifted the man by the collar, and carried him out, kicking. But this is, I believe, the only story extant of any one having treated him with insolence. Hunting popularity by means of petty benevolence is so usual with professional politicians, that many may suspect that Lincoln was not unselfish in his acts of kindness. But I myself know of one instance of charity exercised by him, which was certainly most disinterested. One night, a poor old man, whose little farm had been laid waste during the war, and who had come to Washington, hoping that Government would repay his loss, found himself penniless in the streets of the capital. A person whom I know very well saw him accost the President, who listened to his story, and then, writing something on a piece of paper, gave it to him, and with it a ten-dollar note. The President went his way, and my acquaintance going up to the old man, who was deeply moved, asked him what was the matter. "I thank God," said the old man, using a quaint American phrase, "that there are some white people1 in this town. I've been tryin' to get somebody to listen to me, and nobody would, because I'm a poor foolish old body. But just now a stranger listened to all my story, and give me this here." He said this, showing the money and the paper, which contained a request to Secretary Stanton to have the old man's claim investigated at once, and, if just, promptly satisfied. When it is remembered that Lincoln went into office and out of it a poor man, or at least a very poor man for one in his position, his frequent acts of charity appear doubly creditable. Whatever may be said of Lincoln, he was always simply and truly a good man. He was a good father to his children, and a good President to the people, whom he loved as if they had been his children. America and the rest of the world have had many great rulers, but never one who, like Lincoln, was so much one of the people, or who was so sympathetic in their sorrows and trials. 1 "White people"-civilised, decent, kind-hearted people. INDEX. ABOLITIONISM, 49, 66, 122, 126, 168. Anti-slavery protest, 48, 50, 51; re- BALDWIN, JOHN, the smith, 27. Black regiment, charge of the, 161. Booth, his plans, 221; antecedents, Border ruffians and outrages, 68, Buchanan, President, 92. CABINET, treason in the, 92. Compromises of 1826 and 1850, 66. Conspiracies, suspected, 88. DAVIS, JEFFERSON, President of Enlistment of coloured troops, 133. FARRAGUT, Admiral, 194. GETTYSBURG, battle of, 150. Grant, "Unconditional Surrender," HANKS, NANCY, 9, 12, 15. Hicks, Governor, and Maryland, JACKSON, death of General Stone- Johnston, Mrs., Lincoln's second KANSAS-NEBRASKA Bill, 67. LECOMPTON Constitution, 74. Douglas, Stephen, 47, 67, 69, 70, 74, Lincoln, Abraham, his family, 9, 10; 77, 84, IIO. ELLSWORTH and Winthrop, death birth and birth-place, 9; grand- Mexican war, 59. Mexico, the French in, 167. Negroes, reception of, 204. PEA Ridge, battle of, 138. privations, 17; education, 20; QUANTRILL's guerillas, 170. REBELLION, breaking out of, 91, 94; MASON and Sliddell affair, 131. 140. Merrimac, the, 141. SANITARY fairs, 182. TENNESSEE, the campaign in, 163. UNION troops attacked, 106. VIRGINIA'S secession, 109, 115. WAR, organisation of, 113. Marcus Ward & Co., Royal Ulster Works, Belfast. |