Page images
PDF
EPUB

character, we have no need to resort to apocryphal stories that illustrate the assurance of his victories quite as much as the simplicity of his faith; we have but to follow internal evidences, as the workings of his soul reveal themselves through his own published utterances. On leaving Springfield for the capital, he said:

"A duty devolves upon me which is, perhaps, greater than that which has devolved upon any other man since the days of Washington. He never would have succeeded except for the aid of divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the same divine aid which sustained him, and on the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support; and I hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive that divine assistance, without which I cannot succced, but with which success is certain.'

"He knew himself to be surrounded by a religious community who were acquainted with his life, and his words were spoken in all sincerity.

"At Gettysburg, with a grand simplicity worthy of Demosthenes, he dedicated himself with religious earnestness to the great task yet before him, in humble dependence upon God. Owning the power of vicarious sacrifice, he said, 'We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly carried on.'

"We distinctly trace the growth of this feeling of religious consecration in his public declarations: 'We can but press on, guided by the best light God gives us, trusting that in his own good time and wise way, all will be well. Let us not be over sanguine of a speedy, final triumph. Let us be quite sober. Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that

a just God, in his own good time, will give us the rightful result.'* "The nation's condition is not what either party or any man desired or expected. God alone can claim it. Whither it is tending seems plain. If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we of the North, as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new cause to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God.'t This devout feeling culminated at length in that sublime confession of faith, of humility, of dependence, of consecration, known as his last inaugural. It is said, upon good authority, that had he lived, he would have made a public profession of his faith in Christ. But Abraham Lincoln needed no other confession than that which he made on the 4th of March last in the hearing of all nations.

"A Christian lady, who was profoundly impressed with the religious tone of the inaugural, requested, through a friend in Congress, that the President would give her his autograph by the very pen that wrote that now immortal document, adding that her sons should be taught to repeat its closing paragraph with their catechism. The President, with evident emotion, replied, 'She shall have my signature, and with it she shall have that paragraph. It comforts me to know that my sentiments are supported by the Christian ladies of our country.'

"His pastor at Washington, after being near him steadily, and with him often for more than four years, bears this testimony: 'I speak what I know, and testify what I have often heard him say, when I affirm the guidance and the mercy of God were the props on which he humbly and habitually leaned;' and that 'his abiding confidence in God and in the final triumph of truth and righteousness through him and for his sake, was his noblest virtue, his grandest principle, the secret alike of his strength, his patience, and his success.'

"Thus trained of God for his great work, and called of God

Letter to Kentucky.

† Letter to A. G. Hodges, April, 1864.

[ocr errors]

in the fulness of time, how grandly did Abraham Lincoln meet his responsibilities and round up his life. How he grew under pressure. How often did his patient heroism in the earlier years of the war serve us in the stead of victories. He carried our mighty sorrows; while he never knew rest, nor the enjoyment of office. How wisely did his cautious, sagacious, comprehensive judgment deliver us from the perils of haste. How clearly did he discern the guiding hand and the unfolding will of God. How did he tower above the storm in his unselfish patriotism, resolved to save the unity of the nation. And when the day of duty and of opportunity came, how firmly did he deal the last great blow for liberty, striking the shackles from three million slaves; while 'upon this, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution (upon military necessity), he invoked the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.' Rightly did he regard this Proclamation as the central act of his administration, and the central fact of the nineteenth century. Let it be engraved upon our walls, upon our hearts; let the scene adorn the rotunda of the Capitol-henceforth a sacred shrine of liberty. It needed only that the seal of martyrdom upon such a life should cause his virtues to be transfigured before us in imperishable grandeur, and his name to be emblazoned with heaven's own light upon that topmost arch of fame, which shall stand when governments and nations fall.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

Who let the turbid streams of rumor flow

Thro' either babbling world of high and low;
Whose life was work, whose language rife
With rugged maxims hewn from life;
Who never spoke against a foe."

To this brilliant estimate of Mr. Lincoln's life and character, let us add the glowing and comprehensive "summing up" of his life's work, as presented in the eloquent language of the Rev. Dr. R. S. Stone, in a public oration delivered in the Brooklyn Academy of Music, July 4th, 1865:

"Such was the man for whom we mourn, and such the position in which Providence had placed him. Think, then, a moment of the work which he wrought in it.

*

*

*

*

"How singular it is among the recorded achievements of man! How plainly is revealed in it a higher any than human will, laying out and arranging the mighty scheme! When he took in hand the reins of the government, the finances of the country seemed hopelessly deranged, and after many years of peace it was difficult to raise money, at unprecedented interest, for its daily use. And when he died-after such expenditures as no man had dreamed of through four long years of devastating war-the credit of the republic was so firmly established that foreign markets were clamorous for its bonds, and the very worst thing that could have happened his own destruction— did not depress, by one hair's breadth, the absolute confidence of our own people in them. When he came to Washington, the navy at the command of the government was scattered, almost beyond recall, to the ends of the earth, and was even ludicrously insufficient for instant needs. He left it framed of iron instead of oak, with wholly new principles expressed, in its structure, and large enough to bind the continent in blockade,

while it made the national flag familiar on every sea which commerce crosses. He found an army mostly dispersed, almost hopelessly disorganized by the treachery of its officers; with hardly enough of it left at hand to furnish a body-guard for his march to the capital. He left a half million of men in arms, after the losses of fifty campaigns, with valor, discipline, ́arms, and generalship unequalled in the world, and admonitory to it. He found our diplomacy a by-word and a hissing in most of the principal foreign courts; he made it intelligent, influential, respected wherever a civilized language is spoken. In his moral and political achievements at home he was still more successful. He found the arts of industry prostrated, almost paralyzed, indeed, by the arrest of commerce, the repudiation of debts, the universal distrust. He left them so trained, tutored, and developed that henceforth they are secure amid the world's competition. He came to Washington through a people morally rent and disorganized; of whom it was known that a part at least were in full accord with the disloyal plans, and concerning whom it was feared by many, and predicted by some, that the slightest pressure from the government upon them would resolve them at once into fighting factions. He laid heavy taxes, he drafted them into armies, he made no effort to excite their admiration, he seemed to throw down even the ancient monuments of their personal liberty; and he went back to his grave through the very same people, so knit into one by their love for each other and their reverence for him, that the cracking of the continent hardly could part them. At his entrance on his office, he found the leaders of the largest, fiercest, most tenacious rebellion known to history, apparently in all things superior to himself; in capacity, in culture, in political experience, in control over men, in general weight with the country itself; and when he was assassinated, he left them so utterly overthrown and discomfited that they fled over sea or hid themselves in women's skirts. A power it had taken fifty years to mature-a power that put every thing into the contest-money, men, harbors, homes,

« PreviousContinue »