RECOLLECTIONS OF ONE WHO STUDIED LAW WITH LINCOLN. 200 By JOHN H. LITTLEFIELD, Author of Lecture, "Personal Recollections The Noblest of Men - Nature's Orator. By the Rev. GEORGE W. PEPPER, Captain and Chaplain of the Eightieth By ALFRED B. CHANDLER, President and General Manager, Postal Tele- INTRODUCTION. THIS volume is not one man's view, nor two men's view, of Abraham Lincoln. It is no portrait biography by a single admirer giving a single picture of the most picturesque, perhaps the most noble, character in American history. It is a portfolio of portraits, one of them, careful and labored, by Ex-Secretary of the Treasury Boutwell, others, vivid and striking snap-shots by men on whose memory some single interview had impressed itself as a great event in their lives; others, single scenes in which President Lincoln was the prominent figure. All these together supply a grand composite picture, the separate parts all blending in one harmonious whole, and supplying such a complete, many-sided view of the man as has never before been given to the American people. It is the charm of such a multiple presentation of Mr. Lincoln's character, that in all these separate views of it, given here by more than forty men and women, there is nothing that breaks the harmony of the whole. From every side at which we are called to look upon his character we see something noble. He is small nowhere. It is as if a hundred vessels were approaching the peak of Teneriffe from as many directions, and from each the mountain is seen rising lofty above the level of the sea. Such a writer as his private secretary, Mr. W. O. Stoddard, saw him close at hand every day, knew him intimately, saw him in his most familiar moods, and watched his bitterest struggles with the adverse fortunes which, in threatening to destroy the Union, first struck at his heart; but he can remember nothing but one noble hero, carrying with anxious, yet cheerful, but almost supernatural strength the weight of a Nation's hope, the burden of a Nation's fate. Just such a man they also saw who met him but once, perhaps on some tender errand of mercy, always great, however simple, playful, or anxious. This series of reminiscences extends from his early manhood, before any one imagined his future fame, till the very hour of his death. It is fortunate that his law partner, Mr. Herndon, and his associates in his early experiences at the bar, Judge Weldon and Mr. Littlefield, have been able to give such interesting accounts of his activity in his profession and in politics while he was yet unknown to the world. And, passing those years of fame and coming to that last terrible night that put the whole country in mourning, it is equally fortunate that Mr. W. J. Ferguson, who was one of the players at Ford's Theatre on that tragic night, has been persuaded to break his long silence on the subject and tell the story of the assassination as he saw and knew it; also that Colonel Sinn, who, as theatrical manager at the time, knew and met Wilkes Booth, can tell so much of the latter. Perhaps the serious side of Mr. Lincoln's character is made more prominent in these papers. The public has heard too much of Lincoln as a story-teller, and has come to think of him as at times almost dropping into buffoonery. General Viele speaks of him as a story-teller, and others do so incidentally, and it is well to hear their testimony that he had no patience with any story whose wit was only vulgarity. But it will be observed that the prevailing impression made by Mr. Lincoln on those who met him was that of a burdened and weary anxiety, as of a man who carried a load which he could rest on no other man's shoulders, and whose physical nature could bear the spiritual burden only as he sought mental relief in that relaxation of joke and story which he could so much enjoy. A number of writers, among them Henry C. Bowen, Daniel D. Bidwell, and Dr. Henry M. Field, describe how Mr. Lincoln first made the acquaintance and captured the hearts of his friends in the East, after his public discussion with Mr. Douglass, and so became an acceptable candidate for the nomination as President. After his election he entered Washington unexpectedly, by a different route from that announced, in a way that gave occasion for much criticism. Major Seward tells just what was the occasion of this surprising change of plan and route, and how his father, Secretary Seward, sent him to meet Mr. Lincoln and warn him to avoid Baltimore and escape a plot to murder him, just before his inauguration. Not three weeks later the Massachusetts Sixth fought its way through Baltimore, the first armed regiment to reach Washington, and Colonel Watson, of that regiment, tells the interesting story of his interviews with the President at the time. Original testimony as to Mr. Lincoln's religious faith is offered by General Rusling, taken from Lincoln's own mouth. But that story should be very carefully collated with the wonderful story of perhaps the same occasion |