United States our solemn congratulations that God has sustained his life and health under the unparalleled burdens and sufferings of four bloody years, and permitted him to behold this auspicious consummation of that national unity for which he has labored with such disinterested wisdom."

The kindly words spoken of President Lincoln were never known to him. Little did the orator think that in less than ten hours the hand of an assassin would put an end to that life, for the preservation of which he had been pouring out congratulations. Rumors of threatened assassination had from time to time reached the ear of the public, but so many dark days had been passed in safety that little or no danger was apprehended of such a calamity, especially at this time, when the enemies of the nation were melting away before our armies as mist before the rising sun.

CHAPTER VIII.

Mr. Lincoln saw the storm coming long before it burst upon the nation, and from the time he became satisfied that he was about to be the choice of the people for President of the United States, he never doubted that he was chosen by the Almighty to do some special work. This feeling clung to him all through his presidential career. Running parallel with this was another feeling, that when his work was done he would pass away. On these two points he

often conversed, and to his friends he sometimes expressed himself quite freely.

Among the earliest of his utterances on record with reference to these matters, is a series of conversations in the autumn of 1860, with the Hon. Newton Bateman, of Springfield, Superintendent of Public Instruc-. tion for Illinois, now President elect of Knox College. After Mr. Lincoln was nominated by the Chicago convention in May, 1860, he for a time received the public at his own residence. This, however, interfered so much with the privacy of the family that the Executive Chamber, a fine, large room in the State House, was tendered to him. In this he received all who had a mind to call on him, until after his election and de parture for Washington. The room of Mr. Bateman was adjoining the Executive Chamber, and by a private door the occupants of these rooms could communicate when they desired to do so. This door was frequently open during the seven months the room was occupied by Mr. Lincoln. When he was tired he would often close the outer door against intrusion, and

call Mr. Bateman in for a quiet talk. On one of these occasions, after a long conversation about the inconsistency of ministers of the Gospel, and other professing Christians with whom they were both acquainted in their political action, he said: "Mr. Bateman, I am not a Christian-God knows I would be one, but I have carefully read the Bible, and I do not so understand this book," and he drew from his bosom a copy of the New Testament, and continued: "These men well know that I am for freedom in the territories, freedom everywhere, as far as the constitution and laws will permit, and that my opponents are for slavery. They know this, and yet, with this Book in their hands, in the light of which human bondage can not live a moment, they are going to vote against me. I do not understand it at all." He then paused, his features manifesting intense emotion; he arose and walked the room, in the effort to regain his compoHe at length stopped, his cheeks wet with tears, his voice trembling, and he said:

sure.

"I know there is a God, and that He hates injustice and slavery. I see the storm coming, and I know that His hand is in it. If he has a place and work for me-and I think He has-I believe I am ready. I know I am right, because I know that Liberty is right, for Christ teaches it, and Christ is God. I have told them that a house divided against itself cannot stand, and Christ and reason say the same; and they will find it so."

He then spoke of those who did not care whether slavery was voted up or voted down, and then said:

“God cares, and humanity cares, and I care; and with God's help I shall not fail. I may not see the end, but it will come, and I shall be vindicated; and these men will find that they have not read their Bibles aright."

Much of this was spoken as if he was talking to himself, and in a manner peculiarly sad, earnest and

solemn. Resuming the conversation after a short pause, he said:

"Does it not appear strange that men can ignore the moral aspects of this contest? A revelation could not make it plainer to me, that slavery or the government must be destroyed. The future would be something awful, as I look at it, but for this rock on which I stand"—(alluding to the Testament which he still held in his hand)-"especially with the knowledge of how these ministers are going to vote. It seems as if God had borne with this thing-slavery-until the very teachers of religion have come to defend it from the Bible, and to claim for it a divine character and sanction; and now the cup of iniquity is full, and the vials of wrath will be poured out.".

In the course of his conversation with Mr. Bateman he unreservedly expressed his conviction of the necessity of faith in the Christian's God, as an element of successful statesmanship, that it gave calmness to the mind which made a man firm and immovable amid the wildest excitements. After expressing his belief in an overruling Providence, and the fact of God in history, the subject of prayer was introduced. "He freely stated his belief in the duty, privilege and efficacy of prayer, and intimated, in unmistakable terms, that he had sought in that way the divine guidance and favor." When this interview was drawing to a close, Mr. Bateman said: "I have not supposed that you were accustomed to think so much upon this class of subjects. Certainly your friends generally are ignorant of the sentiments you have expressed to me.' He replied quickly: "I know they are. I am obliged to appear different to them, but I think more on these subjects than upon all others, and I have done so for years, and I am willing you should know it."

Numerous instances might be cited of his conversations before his election and between that and the time of his inauguration, in which he expressed the

conviction that the day of the wrath of the Almighty was at hand, and that he was to be an actor in the terrible struggle, which would issue in the overthrow of slavery, and that he did not believe that he would see the end, or that he would pass away with that system of abominations.

An incident well calculated to deepen this conviction in his mind occurred soon after his first election. He related it to some of his friends, but we believe it was not made public until after his death. The following account of it, said to be almost in Mr. Lincoln's own words, is part of an article from the pen of Major John Hay, in Harper's Magazine for July, 1865. He says:

"It was just after my election in 1860, when the news had been coming in thick and fast all day, and there had been a great ‘hurrah, boys' so that I was well tired out, and went home to rest, throwing myself upon a lounge in my chamber. Opposite where I lay was a bureau with a swinging glass upon it, and looking at that glass I saw myself reflected nearly at full length; but my face, I noticed, had two separate and distinct images, the tip of the nose being about three inches from the tip of the other. I was a little bothered, perhaps startled, and got up and looked in the glass, but the illusion vanished. On laying down again, I saw it a second time, plainer, if possible then before; and then I noticed that one of the faces was a little paler-say five shades— than the other. I got up and the thing melted away, and I went off, and, in the excitement of the hour, forgot all about it-nearly, but not quite, for the thing would once in a while come up and give me a little pang, as though something uncomfortable had happened. When I went home I told my wife about it, and a few days after I tried the experiment again, when, sure enough, the thing came back again; but I never succeeded in bringing it back after that, though I once tried very industriously to show it to my wife, who was worried about it somewhat. She thought it was 'a sign' that I was to be elected to a second term of office, and that the paleness of one of the faces was an omen that I should not see life through the last term.