These two pictures from the famous photograph taken March 9, 1864, show that the protruding lower lip was wholly responsible for the opinion that Lincoln was homely. With that lip concealed the features are strikingly handsome, (See page 72)

T°

III

THE JAQUESS-GILMORE MISSION *

O the re-election of Abraham Lincoln as President, and the final overthrow of the Rebellion, the JaquessGilmore Embassy of 1863-64 contributed more largely than did any other single effort of individuals, or any one achievement or act of the Government during that period.

Having been an active participant in the struggles of that Presidential campaign and having given the history of that mission careful consideration for more than half a century, I have no hesitation in saying that the disclosures secured by that embassy and widely published at the crisis hour of that contest, turned the tide of battle and saved the nation from the ruinous defeat of President Lincoln and the dissolution of the Union.

The story of that unique mission and of its decisive influence in the Presidential campaign is here told with painstaking fidelity and, to be rightfully appreciated, it should be read in its entirety. The hero of that embassy,

COLONEL JAMES F. JAQUESS,

of the 73rd Illinois Volunteers, was a rare man. He lived with his head above the clouds while his feet were on solid ground; he lived in the eternal while he wrought with tremendous force in the activities of earth. He was a prominent minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a distinguished college president before the Rebellion, and in the pulpit he was a Boanerges, a "Son of Thunder," and his

*All the quotations in this Chapter which are not otherwise designated, are from "Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War," by Mr. James R. Gilmore, and appear in this volume by permission of his publishers, L. C. Page & Company, of Boston, Mass.

gospel messages were like oral proclamations by Jehovah. He seemed to live in constant fellowship with the Most High, and to be an utter stranger to worldly considerations and motives while obeying the commands of God. He was as loving and gentle as a devoted mother in dealing with the weak and erring, but he would dash with fearless fury into battle as if hurled by an invisible catapult against the forces of unrighteousness. To him the entreaties of the gospel, the denunciations of the law, and the violence of war, were alike the agencies of God in the furtherance of His cause.

President Lincoln had for more than twenty-five years known Colonel Jaquess as a very successful minister of the gospel, and when in May, 1863, he first learned of the proposed Embassy of Peace, he said: "I know Jaquess well. He is remarkably level-headed. I never knew a man more so." He "is cool, deliberate, God-fearing, of exceptional sagacity and worldly wisdom."

General W. S. Rosecrans, who at the time was in command of the Army of the Cumberland, with headquarters at Murfreesboro, Tenn., in conversation with Mr. James R. Gilmore, spoke of Colonel Jaquess as "one of my best and bravest officers." "As to his life, he takes the right view about it. He considers it already given to the country. If you had seen him at Stone River you would think so." "He is a hero, John Brown and Chevalier Bayard rolled into one, and polished up with common sense and a knowledge of Greek, Latin and the mathematics."

Colonel Jaquess as he appeared at the time of making his proposition is described as "a little above the medium height, with gray hair and beard, and high, open forehead, and a thin marked face expressing great earnestness, strength and benignity of character."

General James A. Garfield, afterwards President, said of Colonel Jaquess: "He is most solemnly in earnest and has great confidence in the result of his mission."

1 James R. Gilmore, "Down in Tennessee,” p. 240.