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perience of his life, so far as we know, which drove him to look outside of his own mind and heart for help to endure a personal grief. It was the first time in his life when he had not been sufficient for his own experience. Religion up to this time had been an intellectual interest. The Christian dogma had been taught him as a child and all his life he had been accustomed to hearing every phase of human conduct and experience tested by the precepts of the Bible as they were interpreted by the more or less illiterate church of the West. For a short period of his life when he was about twenty-five years of age, it is certain that he revolted against the Christian system, and even went so far as to prepare a pamphlet against it. The manuscript of this work was destroyed by his friend, Samuel Hill. This period of doubt passed, and though there is nothing to show that Mr. Lincoln returned to the literal interpretation of Christianity which he had been taught, and though he never joined any religious sect, it is certain that he regarded the Bible and the church with deep reverence. He was a regular attendant upon religious services, and one has only to read his letters and speeches to realize that his literary style and his moral point of view were both formed by the Bible.

It was after his election to the presidency that we begin to find evidences that Mr. Lincoln held to the belief that the affairs of men are in the keeping of a Divine Being who hears and answers prayer and who is to be trusted to bring about the final triumph of the right. He publicly acknowledged such a faith when he bade his Springfield friends good-by in February, 1861. In his first inaugural address, he told the country that the difficulty between North and South could be adjusted in "the best way," by "intelligence, patriotism, Christianity and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land." When he

was obliged to summon a Congress to provide means for a civil war, he started them forth on their duties with the words, "Let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear and with manly hearts." In August, 1861, he issued a proclamation for a National Fast Day which is most impressive for its reverential spirit:

"Whereas it is fit and becoming in all people, at all times, to acknowledge and revere the supreme government of God; to bow in humble submission to His chastisements; to confess and deplore their sins and transgressions, in the full conviction that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and to pray with all fervency and contrition for the pardon of their past offenses, and for a blessing upon their present and prospective action:

"And whereas when our own beloved country, once, by the blessing of God, united, prosperous, and happy, is now afflicted with faction and civil war, it is peculiarly fit for us to recognize the hand of God in this terrible visitation, and in sorrowful remembrance of our own faults and crimes as a nation, and as individuals, to humble ourselves before Him and to pray for His mercy-to pray that we may be spared further punishment, though most justly deserved; that our arms may be blessed and made effectual for the re-establishment of law, order, and peace throughout the wide extent of our country; and that the inestimable boon of civil and religious liberty, earned under His guidance and blessing by the labors and sufferings of our fathers, may be restored in all its original excellence."

But it is not until after the death of his son that we begin to find evidence that Mr. Lincoln was making a personal test of Christianity. Broken by his anxiety for the country, wounded nigh to death by his loss, he felt that he must have a support outside of himself; that from some source he must draw new courage. Could he find the help he needed in the Christian faith? From this time on he was seen often with the Bible in his hand, and he is known to have prayed fre

quently. His personal relation to God occupied his mind much. He was deeply concerned to know, as he told a visiting delegation once, not whether the Lord was on his side, but whether he was on the Lord's side. Henceforth, one of the most real influences in Abraham Lincoln's life and conduct is his dependence upon a personal God.

CHAPTER XXV

LINCOLN AND EMANCIPATION

THE 22d of February was the day that the President had set for an advance of the army but it was evident to both the Administration and the country that the Army of the Potomac would not be ready to move then. Nor could anybody find from McClellan when he would move. The muttering of the country began again. Committee after committee waited on the President. He did his best to assure them that he was doing all he could. He pointed out to them how time and patience, as well as men and money, were needed in war, and he argued that, above all, he must not be interfered with. It was at this time that he used his striking illustration of Blondin. Some gentlemen from the West called at the White House one day, excited and troubled about some of the commissions or omissions of the Administration. The President heard them patiently, and then replied:" Gentlemen, suppose all the property you were worth was in gold and you had put it in the hands of Blondin, to carry across the Niagara river on a rope. Would you shake the cable or keep shouting at him, ' Blondin, stand up a little straighter-Blondin, stoop a little more-go a little faster-lean a little more to the north-lean a little more to the south?' No, you would hold your breath as well as your tongue, and keep your hands off until he was safe over. The Government is carrying an enormous weight. Untold treasures are in their hands; they are doing the very best they can. Don't badger them. Keep silence, and we will get you safe across."

One of the most insistent of the many bodies which beset him was the Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War, appointed the December before. Aggressive and patriotic, these gentlemen were determined the army should move. But it was not until March that they became convinced that anything would be done. One day early in that month, Senator Chandler, of Michigan, a member of the committee, met George W. Julian. He was in high glee. "Old Abe is mad," he said to Julian, "and the war will now go on."

Whether it would or not remained to be seen but it was soon evident to everybody that the President was going to make another effort to have it go on for on March 8 he issued General War Orders Nos. II and III, the first dividing the Army of the Potomac into four army corps and the second directing that the move against Richmond by the way of the 'Chesapeake bay should begin as early as the 18th of March and that the general-in-chief should be responsible for its moving as early as that day. In this order Lincoln made the important stipulation that General McClellan should make no change of base without leaving in and about Washington a force sufficient to guarantee its safety.

When Lincoln issued the above orders which were finally to drive McClellan from his quarters around Washington, the war against the South had been going on for nearly a year. In that time the North had succeeded in gathering and equipping an army of about 630,000 men, but this army had not so far materially changed the line of hostilities between the North and South, save in the West, where Kentucky and Northern Missouri had been cleared of most of the Confederates. A navy had been collected but beyond establishing a partial blockade of the ports of the Confederacy it had done little. The ineffectiveness of the great effort the North had made was charged naturally to the inefficiency of

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