indeed, the civilized world stopped aghast at the horrid deed. The memories of that Saturday can never pass away. Who can not now reproduce the sad picture? All business was suspended. Men wandered from their stores and shops; farmers mounted their horses and rode in silence to town; hands were grasped without a word; the tongue cleaved to the roof of the mouth; strong hearts gave way in floods of bitter tears. O! it was the gloomiest day America had ever seen! "I saw in that day more of the human heart than in all the rest of my life." So said Charles Godfrey Leland, and so may every man say who then lived.

Soon after his death the body of the President was removed to the White House, embalmed, and placed in the "Green Room."

On Wednesday, 19th, the "funeral services. were performed in the grand "East Room" of the President's Mansion, after which the body was carried to the Capitol, where additional thousands filed through the great rotunda to gain a last look at the pale, poor face so recently lit up by Lincoln, the gentle, generous spirit, then and ever since more loved than any other President of the United States.

Finally, on the morning of the 21st, the coffin was closed, conveyed to the railroad depot, and on a grand funeral train started on its long journey to Springfield, Illinois. At Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and, indeed, in all the cities, and throughout the country, in the entire journey, the people came in mass to the line of the road to do honor to the

martyred President. From the 19th of April till the 3d of May, when the body was laid in "Oak Ridge Cemetery" at Springfield, this funeral had continued. Nothing like it had ever been seen in America; perhaps, not in the world.

CHAPTER XXVI.

CHARACTER AND WORK OF ABRAHAM

LINCOLN

A WONDERFUL STUDY-THE GREAT, THE

WISE, AND THE GOOD.

TH
The end had come, sued of, if not expected, for

HE end had come, such an end as Mr. Lincoln

him. The public had passed through the stages of silent and demonstrative grief, of anger and revenge, of reasonable, second thought, and become calm. Time, the healer, has made this no exception to the rule, and long ago men were able, perhaps, to hear what was of good report, and what of ill, concerning this singular and interesting character. Notwithstanding his simplicity and plainness, on two great points, at least, men were deceived in Abrahan Lincoln. These were his real force as a man and President, and his religious character during his Presidency, and at the end. In this chapter it is designed to look briefly at his official capacity and his general traits.

In April, 1873, Charles Francis Adams delivered at Albany, a "Memorial Address on the Life, Character, and Services of W. H. Seward." In this address Mr. Adams committed the great error of placing Mr. Seward virtually at the head of the Government in Mr. Lincoln's Administration. There may be an

apology for Mr. Adams, in the fact that his error was a common one at the outset, especially with New York and New England politicians. At the beginning of the Administration Mr. Adams was sent as Minister to England, where he remained until after Mr. Lincoln's death, and had less opportunity than other men, perhaps, to correct the error into which. he had fallen. All his correspondence as the representative of the Government was with Mr. Seward, and he seemed to see only the Secretary of State in all the important steps of the Administration. Still Mr. Adams was able to know better than his address indicates, and his opinions of Mr. Lincoln were defamatory. His opinion of Mr. Seward was colored beyond proportion, and also erroneous. He was mistaken in the character of both men. At the outset Mr. Lincoln shrank from comparing his inexperience in public affairs with the long service of some of the men he had chosen to associate with him in the conduct of the affairs of the Government, and it is undoubtedly true that this association rendered him more deferential towards the views of others. He found the machinery of the Government too complicate to be managed by one man, and having confidence in the members of his Cabinet he was glad to rely upon them for the performance of the work of the Departments over which they presided. And here he made it a rule not to interfere, unless, as the responsible head of all, it became necessary for him to do so. He who has followed with any care the course of this story can have little difficulty in

deciding who was the master.

If Mr. Seward's

friends deceived themselves about this matter, it was more than Mr. Seward did after the mismanagement and difficulties surrounding the attempts to relieve Fort Sumter. Mr. Seward was fond of keeping up the delusion in which he and his friends had started out, but he was erelong mistaken himself about his place in the Administration. And Mr. Adams did him a great injury in indicating that he felt another was nominally enjoying the honors for which his wisdom had laid the foundation. He had no such feeling toward Mr. Lincoln, although he was a politician, perhaps in all that term ordinarily implied.

Mr. Seward's standing with the President was very high, and not unfrequently his judgment, and not Mr. Lincoln's inclination, controlled a point of conduct. But this was so with all the heads of Departments, where the President thought the circumstances justified his confidence and deference, and was only more apparent with Mr. Seward owing to the more general nature of his position as an adviser.

While Mr. Lincoln seldom differed openly with any of the members of his Cabinet, he often treated their most serious recommendations with a story, and never quite got rid of his disposition to look upon their opinions lightly. While he seldom failed to consult them on important matters, some of his most marked steps were taken before they were aware of what was coming, or without being able to assent or protest. No very small part of his countrymen believed Mr. Lincoln deficient in will-power, and it is,