In the evening John W. Forney, editor of the Philadelphia "Press," called at the White House. He found Mr. Lincoln suffering great depression of spirits. He was ghastly pale. There were dark rings around his deep-set eyes. He was reading Shakespeare.

"Let me read you this from Shakespeare," he said. "I cannot read it like Forest, who is acting at the theatre, but it comes to me to-night like a consolation :

'To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."" (1)

A few days later the wounded began to arrive from the Wilderness and Spottsylvania. Washington became a vast hospital. The President visited the disabled soldiers, speaking kind words and doing what he could for them. Day by day his own countenance was changing, the sadness becoming habitual.

"He looked," writes Mr. Arnold, member of Congress, "like one who had lost a dear member of his own family. I recall one evening late in May, when I met the President in his carriage driving slowly towards the Soldiers' Home. He had just parted from one of those long lines of ambulances. The sun was just sinking behind the desolate and deserted hills of Virginia; the flags from the forts, hospitals, and camps drooped sadly. Arlington, with its white colonnade, looked like what it was—a hospital. Far down the Potomac, towards Mount Vernon, the haze of evening was gathering over the landscape, and when I met the President his attitude and expression spoke the deepest sadness. He paused as we met, and pointing his hand towards the line of wounded men, he said: 'Look yonder at those poor fellows. I cannot bear it. This suffering, this loss of life, is dreadful.' Recalling a letter he had written years before to a suffering friend whose grief he had sought to console, I reminded him of the incident, and asked him: Do you remember writing to your sorrowing friend these words: "And this, too, shall pass away. Never fear, victory will come." 'Yes,' replied he, 'victory will come, but it comes slowly.'" (")

Sunday was ever a restful day. Public cares were laid aside. In the floorless cabin on the banks of Nolin's Creek Mr. Lincoln had listened to the stories of Abraham, Moses, Joseph, David, Daniel-heroes of Biblical history, as narrated by his mother. There is no more beautiful picture in Mr. Lincoln's life than the scene often witnessed in the White House on Sunday afternoons-the chief executive of the nation narrating the same stories to his listening boy.

NOTES TO CHAPTER XXI.

(') Warden's "Life of Salmon P. Chase," p. 570.

(2) Thaddeus Stevens was born at Peacham, Vt., April 4, 1794. He was educated at Dartmouth College, graduating 1814. He became a school-teacher at York, Pa. He studied law, and began practice as an attorney at Gettysburg, where he remained till 1842; then became a resident of Lancaster. He served many years as a member of the Legislature, and became a political leader. He was elected to Congress, 1848, and made the acquaintance of Mr. Lincoln, then member from Illinois. Through life he had been ardent in his opposition to slavery, and took a prominent part in debate upon the floor of Congress. Few members surpassed him in attention to public affairs. His constituents re-elected him many times. He was ever a friend to the poor and oppressed, a defender of their rights. From the beginning of the war he urged President Lincoln to strike a blow at slavery. He initiated and urged the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. During the war he wielded great influence in Congress, and though advocating extreme measures to put down the Rebellion, he was, on the other hand, a stanch supporter of the Administration.-Author.

(*) Isaac N. Arnold, "Life of Abraham Lincoln," p. 380.

(*) "Congressional Globe," Thirty-eighth Congress, Second Session, pp. 1, 400.

(5) "The Nation," October 2, 1873.

(") "Harper's Weekly," April 2, 1864.

(7) F. B. Carpenter, "Six Months in the White House," p. 48.

() W. C. J., in New York "Times," March 16, 1864.

(*) L. E. Chittenden, "Recollections of Lincoln," p. 323.

(10) J. W. Forney, "Anecdotes of Public Men,” vol. ii., p. 180. (") Isaac N. Arnold, "Life of Abraham Lincoln," p. 375.

CHAPTER XXII.

SUMMER OF 1864.

THE political campaign for nominating candidates for the Presidency

land.

began with the assembling of the Abolitionists and others at CleveGeneral Fremont was nominated. Wendell Phillips in an address said:

"The Administration I regard as a civil and military failure, and its avowed policy ruinous to the North in every point of view. Mr. Lincoln may wish the end peace and freedom, but he is wholly unwilling to use the means which can secure that end. If Mr. Lincoln is re-elected, I do not expect to see the Union reconstructed in my day, unless on terms more disastrous to liberty than ever disunion would be."

Mr. Phillips did not state what means the President could use. The Emancipation Proclamation had been issued; more than 100,000 negro soldiers were in the army. What more could be done?

Mr. Phillips also said:

"I see in General Fremont one whose thorough loyalty to democratic institutions without regard to race, whose earnest and decisive character, whose clear sighted statesmanship and rare military ability justify my confidence that in his hands all will be done to save the State that foresight, skill, decision, and statesmanship can do."

Instead of showing rare military ability, General Frémont had utterly failed as a commander. The convention denounced corruption in office, yet one of its leading members, who had served on Fremont's staff, had been dismissed from military service on account of his dishonest transactions. It was a gathering of a handful of discontented men- less than four hundred.

Mr. Lincoln read the account of the proceedings, and laughed. It reminded him of a gathering in another age, and in another country. He took up his Bible and read:

"And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them; and there were with him about four hundred men."

The United States under the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln was not just like the Kingdom of Israel under Saul; neither was General Fremont the exact counterpart of David. But the four hundred gathered at Cleveland and the four hundred in the cave of Adullam were alike discontented and opposed to those in authority. The President laughed heartily over the similarity. He respected and honored the earnest men who had nominated Fremont, but could not accept their views as to his duty in administering the affairs of the nation.

From the outbreak of the Rebellion the people had gradually come to see that it had been caused by slavery, and that there could be no lasting peace till it was wholly eradicated. President Lincoln issued his Proclamation of Emancipation as a war measure to cripple the enemy, but it did not wholly abolish slavery. Congress could not do it by an enactment. The people must act in their sovereign capacity and change the Constitution.

James M. Ashley, of Ohio; James F. Wilson, of Iowa; Senator Sumner, of Massachusetts, and Senator Henderson, of Missouri, had submitted resolutions for amending the Constitution, which were referred to a Joint Judiciary Committee, of which Senator Trumbull was chairman. The months were slipping away, summer approaching. The committee had taken no action. President Lincoln was solicitous that something should be done. The Emancipation Proclamation was of little effect, save as victories were won.

The National Convention of the Republican Party to nominate a candidate for the Presidency was to meet in Baltimore. It would be called to order by Edwin D. Morgan, chairman of the National Committee. "I would like you," said Mr. Lincoln to him, "in your address, when you call the convention to order, as its key-note, and to put into the platform, as its key - stone, the amendment to the Constitution abolishing and prohibiting slavery."

The day arrived (June 8, 1864). At the outset the delegates manifested their determination to take advanced ground for the maintenance of the Union.

The Army of the Potomac was at Cold Harbor. It had fought its way from the Wilderness to the vicinity of Richmond. It was so near the city that in the stillness of night the Union sentinels could hear the church bells toll the passing hours. The army commanded by Sherman had forced the Confederates under Johnston from Buzzard's Roost to Kenesaw. With victory upon their banners the soldiers of the Union would continue the struggle to the end.