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Ambrotype taken at Springfield, Illinois, May 20, 1860-Original presented to Governor Marcus L. Ward of New Jersey-Now in

THE BURDEN OF A NATION ON LINCOLN'S HEART

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MAN'S life is much like a pendulum.

It swings back and forth over the sweep of events between his birth and death. There is seldom a moment that becomes forever lost. His deeds are ever recurrent. The beat of time in Lincoln's life always brought him before the strong, manly presence of one man. It was this man who now challenged him for the Presidency of the United States-Douglas.

The two were now arrayed against each other in their last great conflict. Douglas, as the candidate of the Northern Democracy, stood for state rights; a principle by which each commonwealth or territory could accept or reject slavery according to its own dictates without interference of Congress or the neighboring states. Lincoln, the candidate of the new Republicanism, placed the responsibility of the problem on Congress as the final authority, declaring that there was no power that legalized slavery anywhere, but that it was within the privilege of Congress to prohibit it in any and every Federal territory. Breckenridge, the candidate of the Southern Democracy, upheld the principle that the citizen of any state has a right to migrate to any territory, taking with him his property by the law of his own state, and that Congress is bound to protect him.

Election day fell on the 6th of November, in 1860. Lincoln came down to his room at the State House, at eight o'clock in the morning. He went to the polls in the late afternoon, and cutting his own name from the head of the Republican ticket, cast the ballot.

The election returns began to arrive in the evening. Lincoln and his friends withdrew to the little telegraph office on the village square. Late in the night the announcement came that his own townspeople had given him a majority. It was then that he showed his first emotion. Cannon boomed from the village green. The villagers remained up until daylight shouting and singing.

It was shortly after midnight that Lincoln was informed of his election. "Boys," he said, "I think I will go home now, for there is a little woman there who would like to hear the news." Three rousing cheers followed him as he passed out into the night. As he entered his bedroom he found his wife had fallen asleep. He touched her gently on the shoulder. "Mary!" She made no answer. He spoke again, a little louder: "Mary, Mary!

We are elected!"

The cheers of his townspeople rang through the night, but on his heart there now rested the burden of the nation.

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THE AFFECTION OF LINCOLN FOR HIS HOME

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HERE is no pinnacle of greatness so high that you cannot reach down and touch hands with those at the bottom. When Lincoln realized that he had been lifted to the highest honor within the gift of the American people, he found that humanity was struggling at his feet. He found that while he had secured the required majority in the electoral college, ten states of the South had not cast a ballot for him; that while he had received the votes of 1,866,452 Americans who were opposed to slavery, an army nearly a million greater had cast their ballots against him, for the combined votes of the other candidates reached 2,814,741.

The fearful import of it all cast its shadow upon his face. The cotton states of the South refused to abide by the election. Trade was paralyzed, banks suspended, and the national treasury was nearly bankrupt. The states in the South began to secede. The North became bewildered at the grim forebodings of the end of the republic. Mobs in Boston rose against the abolition agitators, charging them with bringing on the disaster.

The gentle, peace-loving man, about whom the storms were brewing, remained silent. His heart turned to the old log cabin days and to the simple woman, who, as his step-mother, had come into the desolation of his boyhood. It was a long drive through the country, and the river was filled with running ice, but he made the dangerous passage and arrived at the woman's humble cottage. Tears came to their eyes, as she embraced him with deep emotion. "Good bye, Abraham," she said, "I know I shall never see you again. I know your enemies will kill you."

The tall, sad-faced man caressed her and said gently: "No, no, mother; they will not do that. Trust in the Lord and all will be well."

Then, going to the unmarked and neglected grave of his father, he stood over it in reverie, and asked that a suitable tombstone be erected.

It was now his last day in Springfield. He went to the old law office in the little back room, and, stretching himself out on the worn lounge, he lay there a moment with his face toward the ceiling. "Billy," he said, to his law partner, "let the old sign hang there undisturbed. If I live, I'm coming back sometime, and then we'll go right on practicing law as if nothing had ever happened."

Then rising and walking toward the door, he lingered a moment as if to take a last look at the familiar scenes to impress them on his memory, and, turning away, passed down the stairs for the last time.

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LINCOLN GREETING HIS NEIGHBORS FOR THE LAST TIME AT HIS OLD HOME

Photograph taken at Springfield, Illinois, in 1861, when Lincoln was bidding farewell to his townspeople before going to his inauguration at Washington

Negative in the Collection of Americana owned by Mr. F. H. Meserve of New York

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