memorandum the President wrote in August, 1864, when he felt that he had so far lost the confidence of the people that he could not be chosen again to the Executive office:

This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this administration will not be reëlected. Then it will be my duty to so coöperate with the President-elect as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterward. A. LINCOLN.

After his second triumph at the polls, he had Mr. Hay open the sealed envelop containing the memorandum, and read it to the Cabinet, after he had reminded the members that it was the paper on the back of which he had asked them to sign their names without knowledge of the contents.

In an address to a party of serenaders on the day of the election, when it appeared that the result of the contest would be in his favor, he closed with this characteristic sentiment:

I am thankful to God for this approval of the people; but, while deeply grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. I do not impugn the motives of any one opposed to me. It is no pleas

ure to me to triumph over any one, but I give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the people's resolution to stand by free government and the rights of humanity.

The terrible destruction of the war between the two sections of his beloved country had perfected the quality and spirit of his own service. He felt that no sacrifice was too great in behalf of a reunited nation. The Union was dearer to him than life; and as dear to him as his own life were the lives of the devoted soldiers who had made an equal sacrifice-in his feeling, a greater sacrifice than all others.

The effect of the long tragedy did not, as might have been looked for, reduce the beauty and potency of his style and imagination. It tended to establish and perfect it. In November, he wrote the beautiful letter to Mrs. Bixby, to which Richard Watson Gilder alluded as moving with consolation "the hearts of generation after generation." Like the Gettysburg Address, this perfect gem of prose literature must become a cherished personal possession to give one its full effect of lyric charm and excellence. The prose form of this composition may be read in the Appendix to this volume,1 but to un1 Page 321, Appendix.

derstand its peculiar lyric unity and movement, it is helpful to see it in the rhythmic arrangement which Mr. Perry has given it :

DEAR MADAM:

I have been shown in the files of the War Department A statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts That you are the mother of five sons

Who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel How weak and fruitless must be any words of mine Which should attempt to beguile you from the grief Of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain From tendering to you the consolation that may be found

In the thanks of the Republic they died to save.

I

pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage

The anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only
The cherished memory of the loved and lost,
And the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid
So costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

CHAPTER X

THE CLOSING TRIUMPH OF A GREAT CAREER

It is so with all essential literature. It has the quality to move you, and you can never mistake it, if you have any blood in you. And it has also the power to instruct you which is as effective as it is subtle, and which no research or systematic method can ever rival.-Woodrow Wilson.

Lincoln's reëlection brought him face to face with a second phase of the problem imposed by secession. History was full of instances of the military subordination of insurgent populations for the purpose of preserving national integrity and sovereignty. But the restoration of organic political units, each bearing a republican form of self-government, which had contended by long warfare for the right to maintain a political grouping different from that of their original connection, presented a situation that was novel, if not untried. With no Constitutional provision for such a contingency, the case clearly called for original treatment. In the midst of a multitude of other and more pressing duties, the President had looked forward to the responsibility of reconstruction. The legal aspects of the

case were delicate and could easily provoke dispute. The question presented itself: Had the constitutional connection between the loyal and disloyal States actually been broken by defection and the paralysis of civil war, or was secession to be treated as an incident of unsuccessful revolt within an "indestructible Union of indestructible States"? The latter seems to have been Lincoln's view of the matter. It implied a voluntary resumption of the former civil relations on the initiative of the erring States, under new constitutions fitting the changes produced by the war. The readjustment might be made, it seemed to him, free from the needless burdens and confusion which could easily beset the condition of conquered States, and in a spirit of simplicity which would inspire feelings of good temper and good faith for the future.

In such a frame of mind he cautiously laid the foundation of a policy of reconstruction. The assassin's bullet closed the door forever upon the success of that policy. Fortunately for posterity, that tragedy was deferred until after it inherited Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address.

As the months following the election brought him nearer the fourth of March, 1865, and brought with their lapse the growing certainty of Lee's defeat,