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for the recommendations of a distinguished Pacific Senator, since deceased, and to remonstrate against some of the candidates of his choice. The paper was, perhaps, not too discreetly worded, and when it was put in Mr. Lincoln's hand, he warmly repelled the attack on his friend, and thrust the writing into the fire, as his answer to its representations.

Toward even those who had given him ample cause for hostility, he uniformly manifested feelings of kindness. He was never inclined to pursue a man who had fallen from favor. After the removal of McClellan, he once said that he would most gladly, were it in the nature of things possible, assign that general to another command, and relieve the unpleasantness of his position, in which he (Mr. Lincoln) found no gratification.

The sad failure of the Peninsular campaign, as the first anniversary of the Bull Run disaster approached, made a deep impression on Mr. Lincoln's mind. It was truly a critical time for the nation. In his great anxiety he determined to visit the army in person at Harrison's Landing, which he did. on the 8th of July (1862). Whatever physical recreation he may have found in this visit, it did not change his feeling in regard to military prospects. It was no fitting time to divide the North, or to distract the army by displacing the unsuccessful commander, whose factitious fame still gave him a hold upon the army and the country. How far the loyal States would respond to new and heavy demands for more troops remained to be seen. A most important emergency had arisen, in which, were it possible, some new power must be brought to his aid. It was under these circumstances, and while on board the steamboat, returning from Harrison's Landing to Washington, that Mr. Lincoln wrote the first draft of his Emancipation Proclamation. This he retouched soon after reaching Washington, and read the document to his Cabinet. After due consideration, he approved the suggestion of Mr. Seward, that the proclamation would have more weight at some other time, when the military situation should be less dubious. The people nobly responded to the call for recruits, but meanwhile the division of our forces in Virginia, through McClellan's

tardy movements, had resulted in further disasters. The battle of Antietam was fought on the 17th of September. "I remember," said Mr. Lincoln, in the conversation on which the foregoing statements are based, "when I heard, in the morning, that a battle was going on, it at once occurred to me that if we gained the victory, now would be the time to issue the proclamation." This he did, as is well known, on the 22d of September.

The subjoined incident is related by Hon. Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana:

One morning, over two years ago, calling upon him on business, I found him looking more than usually pale and careworn, and inquired the reason. He replied, with the bad news he had received at a late hour the previous night, which had not yet been communicated to the press, adding that he had not closed his eyes or breakfasted; and, with an expression I shall never forget, he exclaimed, "How willingly would I exchange places to day with the soldier who sleeps on the ground in the Army of the Potomac."

Auguste Langel, a French writer, who visited this country not long since, gives, among other reminiscences, the following account of a visit to Ford's Theater-occupying the fatal box in company with Mr. Lincoln (some months before his death):

I was, as may be supposed, more occupied with the President than the performance. He, however, listened with attention, though he knew the play by heart. He followed all the incidents of it with the greatest interest, and talked with Mr. Sumner and myself only between the acts. His second son, a boy of 11, was near him, and Mr. Lincoln held him nearly the whole time, leaning on him, and often pressed the laughing or astonished face of the child on his broad chest. To his many questions he replied with the greatest patience. Certain allusions of King Lear to the sorrows of paternity caused a cloud to pass over the President's brow, for he had lost a young child at the White House, and never was consoled. I may be pardoned for dwelling on recollections so personal, which, under other circumstances, I should communicate only to a few friends; for it was on that very spot where I saw him with his child and his friends, that death struck down one so full of meekness, as gentle as a woman, as simple as a child. It was

there he received the Parthian arrow of vanquished slavery, and fell the noble victim of the noblest of causes.

Rev. Dr. Thompson, of New York, mentions these incidents as within his own knowledge:

Mr. Lincoln was asked whether he thought the victory at Atlanta or the Chicago platform contributed most to secure his re-election. "I guess it was the victory," he observed; "At any rate, of the two, I would rather have the victory repeated." The death of the guerrilla Morgan being mentioned, Mr. Lincoln remarked: "Well, I wouldn't crow about anybody's death; but I guess I can take this death as resignedly as I can anybody's." Then he added, with indignation, that Morgan was a coward, a negro-driver, a kind of man that the North knows nothing about.

Mr. Carpenter, the artist, whose painting, "The Signing of the Emancipation Proclamation," is well known, makes the following statement:

It has been the business of my life, as you know, to study the human face, and I say now, as I have said repeatedly to friends, Mr. Lincoln had the saddest face I ever painted. During some of the dark days of last spring and summer I saw him at times when his careworn, troubled appearance was enough to bring tears of sympathy into the eyes of his most violent enemies. I recall particularly, one day, when, having occasion to pass through the main hall of the domestic apartments, I found him all alone, pacing up and down a narrow passage, his hands behind him, his head bent forward upon his breast, heavy black rings under his eyes, showing sleepless nights-altogether such a picture of the effects of weighty cares and responsibilities as I never had seen. And yet he always had a kind word, and almost always a genial smile, and it was his way frequently to relieve himself at such times by some harmless pleasantry. I recollect an instance told me by one of the most radical members of the last Congress. It was during the darkest days of 1862. He called upon the President early one morning, just after news of a disaster. It was a time of great anxiety, if not despondency. Mr. Lincoln commenced telling some trifling incident, which the Congressman was in no mood to hear. He rose to his feet and said, "Mr. President, I did not come here this morning to hear stories; it is too serious a time." Instantly the smile dis

appeared from Mr. Lincoln's face, who exclaimed, “A———, sit down! I respect you as an earnest, sincere man. You can not be more anxious than I am constantly, and I say to you now, that were it not for this occasional vent I should die !"

The following reminiscences of the Hampton Roads conferrence, are taken from a Southern paper, and are understood to have been written by A. H. Stephens, or at his instance:

Mr. Lincoln declared that the only ground upon which he could rest the justice of the war-either with his own people or with foreign powers-was that it was not a war for conquest, but that the States never had been separated from the Union. Consequently, he could not recognise another government inside of the one of which he alone was President, nor admit the separate independence of States that were yet a part of the Union. "That," said he, "would be doing what you have so long asked Europe to do in vain, and be resigning the only thing the armies of the Union are fighting for."

Mr. Hunter made a long reply, insisting that the recognition of Davis' power to make a treaty was the first and indispensable step to peace, and referring to the correspondence between King Charles the First and his Parliament, as a reliable precedent of a constitutional ruler treating with rebels.

Mr. Lincoln's face then wore that indescribable expression which generally preceded his hardest hits, and he remarked: "Upon questions of history I must refer you to Mr. Seward, for he is posted in such things, and I don't profess to be bright. My only distinct recollection of the matter is, that Charles lost his head."

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The special report made by Stephens, Hunter and Campbell, on this conference, as quoted in the article just cited from, says:

Mr. Seward then remarked: "Mr. President, it is as well to inform these gentlemen that yesterday Congress acted upon the amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery."

Mr. Lincoln stated that was true, and suggested that there was a question as to the right of the insurgent States to return at once and claim a right to vote upon the amendment, to which the concurrence of two-thirds of the States was required.

He stated that it would be desirable to have the institution of slavery abolished by the consent of the people as soon as possible--he hoped within six years. He also stated that four hundred millions of dollars might be offered as compensation

to the owners, and remarked: "You would be surprised were I to give you the names of those who favor that."

Mr. Hunter said something about the inhumanity of leaving so many poor old negroes and young children destitute by encouraging the able-bodied negroes to run away, and asked, what are they the helpless-to do?

Mr. Lincoln said that reminded him of an old friend in Illinois, who had a crop of potatoes, and did not want to dig them. So he told a neighbor that he would turn in his hogs, and let them dig them for themselves. "But," said the neighbor "the frost will soon be in the ground, and when the soil is hard frozen, what will they do then?" To which the worthy farmer replied, "Let 'em root!"

Mr. Stephens said he supposed that was the original of "Root Hog, or Die," and a fair indication of the future of the

negroes.

Mr. Lincoln's private papers, in the possession of his family, include many letters, memoranda, and other embodiments of his thoughts, which will, no doubt, be hereafter given to the reading world. It must suffice to add here some portion of the writings of this character, not embraced in the preceding pages, on which the seal of privacy does not rest. A few brief speeches are also added.

MR. LINCOLN ON TEMPERANCE.

In response to an address from the Sons of Temperance, in Washington, on the 29th of September, 1863, Mr. Lincoln made the following remarks:

As a matter of course, it will not be possible for me to make a response co-extensive with the address which you have presented to me. If I were better known than I am, you would not need to be told that, in the advocacy of the cause of temperance, you have a friend and sympathiser in me.

When I was a young man-long ago-before the Sons of Temperance, as an organization had an existence, I, in an humble way, made temperance speeches, and I think I may say that to this day I have never, by my example, belied what I

then said.

In regard to the suggestions which you make for the purpose of the advancement of the cause of temperance in the army, I can not make particular responses to them at this time. To

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