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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

EXCELLENCY ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

PRESIDENT OF THE XTSTITED STATES.

-CHARLES HENRY HART, LL.B..
ADTHOIl OP "MEMOIR OF PBE8C0TT ; " "HISTORICAL 8KETCH OP NATIONAL MEDALS;
"remabks on tabasco, MEXICO," ETa, ETC.

&e)irinteli from Sntrolructiiin to 33iiiIiosra])I;ia ILincolniann.

ALBANY :
JOEL MUNSELL.
1870.

ONE HUNDRED COPIES PRINTED

PRIVATE CIKCULATION.

BIOaKAPHICAL SKETCH

OT HIS EXCELLENCY

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

I IVE years ago the nation was called upon to give its utterance
upon the fiendish crime committed at its national, capital, on
the person of its chief magistrate ; and five years ago the
writer of this monograph designed the present work to
preserve and memoralize those utterances. To many this
volume will appear to be nothing but a bald catalogue, of little value and
less interest ; a production showing very meagre results for five years of
diligent labor expended in its preparation. Yet so it is, that in the field of
literature, the bibliographers' task is that requiring the greatest patience
and labor, with the least impressive results, as is quaintly said by Anthony
a Wood, in the prefa'ce to his History of Oxford : " A painfull work it is I'll
assure you, and more than difiicult, wherein what toyle hath been taken, as
no man thinketh, so no man believeth, but he hath made the triall," ' But
is it therefore of the least value ? Is it nothing to have preserved for future
ages, -a, record of those products of the press, called forth by one of the
greatest epochs in the nation's life ; to erect a library within one cover for
the true historian, the oue of fifty or a hundred years hence, to make choice
of the foundation whereupon to build his more enduring monument. It is
with this aim alone that the Bibliographia Lincolniana has been executed.
It was at first intended that it^ should accompany the " Life of President
Lincoln," to be written by his old friend and law partner, the Hon. William
H. Herndon, of Springfield, Illinois, but this gentleman has desisted from his
work, having decided that the time has not yet arrived for the proper ap
preciation of such a work as his materials and knowledge of the subject
would produce. It therefore appears in its present form. It had been the
intention ofthe writer to add a biographical memoir, prepared solely from
the works named in the following catalogue, giving extracts and selections
from each ; but his manuscript prepared after this manner, was accidentally
lost in its transmission to the printer, so that the following sketch must be
accepted in its stead, his time not allowing him the labor of producing a
duplicate of the first.

1 When I state that ahoiit twelve hundred letters were written, and about eight hun
dred letters and pamphlets received, in the preparation of tliis volume, it will he seen
' that my assertion is uot greatly exaggerated.
2 1 allude, of course only to my own portion of this work.

Abraham Lincoln was born on the 13th of February, 1809, in Hardin, now
Larue county, Kentucky, near Nolin creek, about a mile and a half frora
Hodgenville, the present county seat of Larue County. His parents were ex
ceedingly poor and illiterate, the father being neither able to read nor write,
while the mother could read but not write. Ofhis progenitors the following
facts are gleaned from the able eulogy, by Rev. Elias Nason, of North
Billerica, delivered before the New England Historic-Genealogical Society,
and Hon. Solomon Lincoln of Hingham, 's " Notes on the Lincoln Fam'ily of
Massachusetts." The line of Mr. Lincoln's ancestry has been followed with certainty only
to his great-grandfather, who emigrated about the middle of the last cen
tury from Berks county, Pennsylvania, to Eockingham oounty, Virginia.
Where the Lincolns of Berks couuty came from, no record has as yet di
vulged, but they are believed to have been Quakers, and to have escaped
from the intolerance of Massachusetts, to the friendly soil of Pennsylvania.
The argument which tends most strongly '|;o bind the ancestry of the late
president to that of the distinguished Massachusetts Lincolns, is the great
similarity of the Chistian names found in the two families, and one of these
by no means a common one. Hingham, Mass., was formally settled Sep
tember 18, 1635, by the Rev. Peter Hobart and twenty nine others, who
drew house lots on that day. In the next year house lots were granted to
Thomas Lincoln the miller, Thomas Lincoln the weaver, and Thomas Lin
coln the cooper, and' later stiller in 1637, to Samuel Lincoln brother of
Thomas the weaver. Samuel Lincoln, of this family the fourth original
settler, had four sons : Samuel, Dauiel, Mordecai and Thomas. Mordecai
Lincoln had a son Mordecai, born April 34th, 1686, and another named Abra
ham, born Jan. 13th, 1689. Here we have the three names, Mordecai, Thomas
and Abraham in frequent and familiar use. In Rupps's History of Berks and
Lebanon Counties, Pennsylvania, we find that among the taxable inhabitants
of Exeter, Berks county, soon after its organization in 1753, were Mordecai
Lincoln and Abraham Lincoln ; also, that Thomas Lincoln was living in
Reading as early as 1757, and that Abraham Lincoln was one of the repre
sentatives from Berks county, in 1783-5 and a member of the convention for
the framing ofthe constitution of the state in 1789-90. In a correspondence
held in 1848 between the late president while a member of congress, and
Hon. Solomon Lincoln of Hingham, the former stated : " My father's name
is Thomas, <my grandfather's was Abraham, the same of my own. My
grandfather went from Rockingham county in Virginia, to Kentucky about
the year 1783, and two years afterwards was killed by the Indians. We
have a vague tradition that my great-grandfather went frorn Pennsylvania
to Virginia, and that he was a Quaker. Further than this, I have never
heard anything. It may do no harm to say that ' Abraham ' and ' Mordecai '
are common names in our family." In a subsequent letter, he says : " I
have mentioned that my grandfather's name was Abraham. He had, as I
think I have heard, four brothers, Isaac, Jacob, Thomas and John. He had
three sons, Mordecai, Josiah and Thomas, the last my father. My uncle
Mordecai had three sons, Abraham, James and Mordecai ; uncle Josiah had
several daughters and an only son Thomas. My father has an only child,
myself of course. This is all I know certainly on the subject of names ; it

is, however, my father's understanding that Abraham, Mordecai and Thomas
are old family names of ours." At the present day the above notes and sur
mises are all that can be ofi'ered in regard to the connection of the two fami
lies, and we shall have to wait for time to develop the hidden facts requisite
to prove the descent from the same source.
Thomas Lincoln, the father of the president, was born iu Virginia about the
year 1778, so that he was a mere infant at the period of his leather's removal
to Kentucky, and not much more when in 1784, while at work in the field, a
short distance from his cabin, he was stealthily approached by an Indian,
and shot dead. In 1806, when Thomas was in his twenty-eighth year, he
married Nancy Hanks,' like himself a Virginian by birth, and took her to
the humble log cabin, where three years later was born the future president
of the United States. They had three children, a daughter who married
Aaron Grigsby when she was but fourteen years of age, and died shortly
afterwards, and two sons, Abraham, named from his grandfather, and
Thomas, who died in infancy. In 1816, when Abraham was but seven
years old, his father removed from Kentucky and settled in Spencer county,
Indiana, where three years later -his mother died, the mother of whom in
after years, with tears in his eyes, he said : " All that I am or hope to be, I
owe to my angel mother." Her grave lies, unmarked, near the village of
Gentryville, Spencer county, Indiana ; but the first use that her reverent
son put the little education he had acquired after her death, was to indite
an epistle to an itinerant minister of the Baptist church, by the name of
Elkin, whom he had once heard preach before his immigration from Ken
tucky, asking him to come and perform religious services over her grave,
which he accordingly did about a twelve month after she had been laid to rest.
Although it has been stated, and on no poorer authority than the late presi
dent himself, that the aggregate of all the school education of his life could
be embraced within the limits of ohe year, still it seems that in this short space
of time he was under the charge of no less than five teachers, two, Riney and
Caleb Hazel in Kentucky, and Andrew Crawford, Sweeney and Dorsey in
Indiana. It is to Andrew Crawford that the story is told of the president's
" pulling fodder," for three days, to pay for a Life of -Washington. It hap
pened in this wise : Lincoln borrowed from his teacher a copy of Bamsey' s
Life of Wasliington, which he carelessly left in an open window, when a-
shower coming on it was drenched and nearly ruined. Hastening to his
teacher in great grief and alarm, he explained the accident and ofi'ered to work
out the worth of the book's damage, which he did in the manner detailed,
and was rewarded for his behavior by being presented with the book. The
two works with which he became best acquainted in his youth, were ^sop's
Fables and Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. And who can follow the record
of his life without easily detecting the effect they had upon the develop
ment of two of his distinguishing characteristics — his legend of anecdote and
reverence for reUgion.
In the autumn of 1819, somewhat more than a year after the death of
Abraham's mother, his father married again, this time a widow lady with
three children, Mrs. Sally Johnston of Elizabethtown, Kentucky. I think
it ia to this lady more than to his own mother that he is indebted for his
good early training and formation Of character. And from the following

6
letter in possession of the writer virritten to his step-brother, her own son,
it will be seen that he was much more chary of her rights than her own
fiesh and blood. It bears the superscription, " John D. Johnston, Charles
ton, Coles county, Illinois," and is dated, " Springfield, Nov. 35, 1851," and
reads as follows :
Dear Brother: Your letter of the 33d is just received. Your proposal
about selling the East forty acres of land is all that I want or could claim
for myself, but I am not satisfied with it on Mother's account. I want her
to have her living, and I feel that it is my duty, to some extent, to see that
she is not wronged. She had a right of dower (that is the use of -one-third
for life) in the other two forties ; but it seems she has' already let you take
that, hook and line. She now has the use of the whole of the East forty, as
long as she lives ; and if it be sold of course she is entitled to the interest
on all the money it brings as long as she lives ; but you propose to sell it
for three hundred dollars, take one hundred away with you, and leave her
two hundred, at 8 per cent, making her the enormous sum of sixteen dollars
a year. Now, if you are satisfied with treating her in that way, I am not.
It is true, that you are to have that forty for two hundred dollars, at Mother's
death ; but you are not to have it hefore. I am confident that land can be
made to produce for Mother at least $30 a year, and I cannot, to oblige any
living person consent that she shall be put on an allowance of sixteen dol
lars a year. Yours, &c.,
A. Lincoln.
This lady in her eightieth year was still living at the time of the president's
death, near Farmington, Coles county, Illinois.
At the age of nineteen Mr. Lincoln made his first " strike out from home,"
taking charge of a fiat boat and its cargo for the sugar plantations near New
Orleaiis. During the laborious voyage he and his only companion, a son of
his employer, successfully defended themselves against an attack made at
night by a band of negroes for the purposes of plunder, and escaping un
hurt reached their destination, disposed of their freight and returned to their
homes in safety. In March, 1830, Abraham having just completed his
majority, started with his father and family from their Indiana home and
after a tedious journey of fifteen days halted on the banks of the Sangamon
river, near Decatur, Macon county, Illinois. It was at this era in his life that
he acquired the epithet afterwards used towards him of " the rail-splitter of
Illinois," he having split rails enough to , fence in a lot of ten acres, the di
mensions of his father's new home. Here, however, the family did not remain
long. Finding the locality unhealthy th^y removed to Coles county in the
same state, where old Thomas Lincoln died January 17th, 1851, in his
seventy-third year. Having out entirely loose from his family after their
removal to Coles county, we next find Lincoln hired by a man named Ofi'utt
to build a fiat boat at twelve dollars per month, which when completed he
took to New Orleans, with a drove of hogs, for his employer. On his return
his employer placed him in charge of a store and mill at New Salem, Menard
county, Illinois. It was while young Lincoln was engaged in the duties of
tending store, that he borrowed from au acquaintance a copy of Kirkham's

English grammar and commenced its study. The identical book used by Mr.
Lincoln is now in the possession of Capt. R. R. l^utledge. With whose father
Mr. Lincoln lived about this time. His name, together with several remarks,
originally appeared on the fiy leaf, but the leaf has been torn out. In this
connection it may be of interest to state, that the writer has in his possession
a page of Mr. Lincoln's copy-book made in 1834, when he was fifteen years
old. It is of ordinary foolscap size, and has written across the bottom in
large characters, " Abkaham Lincoln's Book." This interesting relic was
presented to the writer, together with many others 'of a similar character, by
his valued friend the Hon. Wilham H. Herndon of Springfield, Illinois, to
whom he is indebted for much valuable information.
It was in the spring of 1833, that the skirmishes with the Sac Indians
began, known in history as the Black Hawk war, whereupon ' Governor
Reynolds, of Illinois, issued his call for volunteers, and among the first to
offer themselves was Abraham Lincoln, who was almost unanimously elected
captain of a company, formed in Menard county, from among his friends and
neighbors. There was no fighting to be done, so the captain and his com
pany had no chance of distinguishing themselves on the field, except in the
manner described in the following extract from a speech delivered by Mr.
Lincoln, when a member of congress, upou the nomination of General Cass,
for the presidency, — the general's friends having endeavored to endow their
hero with a military reputation. " By the way, Mr. Speaker," said Mr.
Lincoln, " do you know I am a military hero 1 Yes, sir, in the days of the
Black Hawk war, I fought, bled and came away. Speaking of General
Cass's career reminds me of my own. I was not at Stillman's defeat, but
I was about as near it as Cass to Hull's surrender ; and like him I saw the
place very soon afterward. It is quite certain I did not break my sword,
for I had none to break ; but I bent my musket pretty badly on one occasion
* * If General Cass went in advance of me in picking whortleberries, I
guess I surpassed him in charges upon the wild onions. If he saw any
live, fighting Indians, it was more that I did, but I had a good many bloody
struggles with the mosquitoes ; and although I never fainted from loss of
blood, I can truly say I was often very hungry."
Mr. Lincoln retnrned home but about ten days before the state election
and was immediately solicited to become a candidate for the legislature, on
the Clay ticket, to which position however he was uot elected. It was dur
ing this canvas that he made his first political speech, and sufficiently is it
characteristic of the man to find a place here. He said : " Gentlemen, fel
low-citizens, I presume you all know who I am, I am humble Abraham
Lincoln. I have been solicited by many friends to become a candidate for
the legislature. My politics are short and sweet. I am in favor of a national
bank. I am in favor of the internal improvement system, and a high pro
tective tariff". These are my sentiments and political principles. If elected
I shall be thankful, if not it will be all the same." After the election Mr.
Lincoln entered into partnership with a man named Berry, in the town ot
New Salem ; but the latter proving a wild, dissipated fellow,the business soon
became a wreck. He was then appointed postmaster of the town by Presi
dent Jackson, and 'about the same time became deputy surveyor of the
coimty. Not having the slightest knowledge of surveying, he borrowed
2

the necessary books from his chief, and after much arduous study procured
a compass and chain and entered upon his duties. He had not been long
engaged in his new employment, when his implements were attached for a
debt of the old firm and sold, but generously purchased by a friend of his,
one James Short, and gratuitously given baok. In 1834, he became again a
candidate for the legislature, and this time was elected by the highest vote
oast for any candidate. To the same legislature was chosen Major John T.
Stuart, whom Mr. Lincoln had known as a captain in the Black Hawk war.
Major Stuart was one ofthe then leaders of the Springfield bar, and urged
and encouraged Mr. Lincoln to study the law and make it his profession ;
enforcing his advice by offering him the loan of any law books he might
have in his possession. Mr. Lincoln was not loth to accept this offer, and
at the close of the session returned to his home in New Salem " with a load
of borrowed legal lore,'' and began its study with great diligence.
In 1836, Mr. Lincoln was re-elected to the legislature, and, in the autumn
of the same year, was admitted to the bar. We do not know the exact
date of his admission, but he could not have been very long unemployed, for
the writer has in his possession the original autograph praecipe, issued by
Mr. Lincoln for the writ in his first case. It is sufficiently curious and in
teresting to iind a place here, audis as follows :
David Woodbkidge, ) m • ^ •
' (^ Trespass wet armis.

HAWTHORNE. f Damages $500.00.
The Clerk of the Sangamon Circuit Court, will issue
a Summons returnable to the next Term of Mar. Sangamon Circuit Court.
October 8th, 1886. ^ A. Lincoln.
It was at the next session of the Legislature, that Abraham Lincoln and
Stephen A. Douglas met for the first time, and little then did these two men
think of the important relations they were to hold in after life towards each
other. The most prominent act of the session was that of removing the
capital of the state from Vandalia to Springfield, and so active a part did
Mr. Lincoln take in effecting this measure, that he was solicited to remove
his residence to the new capital, which he accordingly did in the spring of
1837, and became a partner in the practice of the law, with his former ad
viser, Major Stuart. This partnership, under the name of "Stuart & Lincoln,"
lasted about two years. Mr. Lincoln then formed a business connection
with Hon. S. T. Logan, the firm being " Logan & Lincoln," which continued
until 1848. The next year he formed his third and last partnership, that of
" Lincoln & Herndon," which was only closed by the tragedy of April, '65.
Ppon the breaking up of Mr. Lincoln's second partnership, caused mainly
by both members ofthe firm having similar political aspirations, he accosted
his future partner and best friend, then quite a young and rather obscure
practitioner, with, " Billy, let ns go into business together 1" which proposi
tion Mr. Herndon thankfully accepted. Mr. Lincoln arranged the terms of
partnership, and during the twenty-one years they were partners together,
they never kept a separate account, but held each others money as they did
their own, and never suspected nor ejtperienced a wrong, and never had a
misunderstanding nor a grievance. When Mr. Lincoln was about to leave

9
for Washington, he went to his friend and partner, and rather mournfully
addressing him, as he was wont, with the familiar " Billy," said, " you and
I have been together all these years, and have never 'passed a word,' will you
let my name stay on the old sign till I come back from Washington ?" The
answer need not be repeated, sufficit to say that it did honor to the heart
that fathered it, and to the day of the assassination, all the business of that
offioe was carried on in the name of " Lincoln & Herndon ;'' and his name
was allowed to stay on the old sign till he came back from Washington,
but, alas, how differently was that return, to the way he expected, when he
uttered those feeling words. As a lawyer, Mr. Lincoln had a good local
reputation among his associates, but the jurisprudence of the West in his
day, has entitled few men to enduring honor and distinction. Perhaps the
most promiuent case iu whicii he was, engaged, was McCormick m. Manny,
when he represented the defendant, in one of the numerous cases involving
the question of the infringement of the patent of McCormick's celebrated
reaper. It is worthy of note, that in this case he was opposed by Messrs.
Seward and Stanton, two of his future counsellors and cabinet officers. This
reference to a patent cause, a class of oases in which Mr. Lincoln was not
infrequently engaged, occasions a good opportunity to refer to a mechanical
invention of his own, which was patented and uow finds rather a conspicu
ous place among the models in the Patent Office, at Washington. It was
for the purpose of enabling steam boats to fioat over the shoals and snags of
the western rivers, and consists simply of a sort of bellows-like apparatus,
which being pumped full of air, would give the vessel additional buoyancy
when it was required. The idea was quaint but not practical, and like so
many other similar attempted appliances of mechanical theories to practical
use, only lended its aid in cumbering up the official department, where all
such inventions register their birth, and not a few find burial also.
In 1838, Mr. Lincoln was re-elected to the legislature of his state, and
again in 1840, for the last time. In 1843, having arrived at Ms thirty-third
year, he was married on November 4th, to Miss Mary Todd, a daughter of
Hon. Robert S. Todd, of Kentucky. The issue of this union was four sons :
Robert Todd, who was graduated at Harvard University, in 1864, and sub
sequently was attached to the staff of General Grant, and is now prac
ticing law in Chicago ; Edward, who died in infancy ; William, who died in
Washington during Mr. Lincoln's administration, and Thomas, familiarly
known as Tad, his father having conferred this sobriquet upon him while
an infant in arms, by playfully calling him Tadpole. He is now with his
mother residing abroad.
¦ It was a year or two before his marriage that Mr. Lincoln voluntarily
placed himself in the position to receive a challenge to fight a duel, from
James Shields, afterwards a senator in copgress, and more recently a general
in the late war. The story of the occurrence is worthy of being related, as
showing the chivalric spirit of the young man. A sharp sarcastic poem
appeared in the Sangamon Journal, edited at the time by a man named
Simeon Francis, which was obviously addressed to Shields, although his
name of course did not appear. He went to the editor and demanded the
name of the author, otherwise he would hold him personally responsible.
The editor asked for a day to consider whether he would reveal the oon-

10
tributor's name, which being granted, he immediately applied to Mr. Lincoln
for aid and counsel in the matter, the lines having been handed to him in
the hand-writing of Miss Todd, who was then supposed to hold a relation
to Mr. Lincoln, which after events proved might have had more foundation
than at the time appeared. The fact was that she had only copied them
from the manuscript of the author, a young lady friend. Mr. Lincoln at
once told Francis to say to Shields, that he might hold him responsible for
the poem. The result was a challenge from the hot blooded young Irishman
to meet him and cleanse the insult with " honor's sole purifier-'' The chal
lenge was promptly accepted, and the choice of weapons being Mr. Lincoln's,
he selected broadswords, forthe reason as he afterwards gave, that his arms
being long, he believed that without hurting Shields, he could protect him
self. This, however, happily was unnecessary, the interference of friends
easily effecting an arrangement of the matter and a reconciliation between
the parties, although not until after they had reached the spot selected for
the combat, a place called Bloody island, lying in the Mississippi river,
between Illinois and Missouri.
In 1844, occurred the great presidential campaign between Polk and Clay,
and it was as a candidate for presidential elector, that Mr. Lincoln first be
came generally known to the people of his state, outside of his own imme
diate home and circle, and the subsequent defeat of Mr. Clay, was to him a
great and sad disappointment. A few years later, Mr. Lincoln had the
opportunity of meeting his great political idol and receiving an invitation,
to visit him at his home at Ashland, which was greedily accepted ; but the
result of the interview was most unsatisfactory and showed to the worshiper
that his " idol was but of clay."
In 1846, 'Mr. Lincoln had his wishes gratified by receiving the nomination
for congress, from the Sangamon district. To this position he had aspired
at the last election two years before ; but was chosen a delegate to the nomi
nating convention with instructions to vote for the late Edward D. Baker ;
in regard to which he said, in a letter to a friend in Kentucky, " in trying
to get f;he nomination for Baker, I shall be ' fixed ' a good deal like the fel
low who is made groomsman to the man who has 'cut him out' audis
marrying his own gal." The election proved successful, and Mr. Lincoln took
his seat in the thirtieth congress, December 6th, 1847, the only Whig mem
ber from Illinois. This was perhaps the ablest and stormiest congress that
ever assembled in our country. Debate ran high between whigs and demo
crats, on tariffs, rivers and harbor improvements, the rights of petition, the
abolition of slavery in the district of Columbia, and last, but far from least,
the Mexican war. Mr. Lincoln all through the session, with one exception,
voted consistently and religiously with his party, for he was always in the
broadest sense a loyal party man. He was opposed to the Mexican war
from principle, and on the 83d of December, 1847, introduced a preamble and
set of resolutions of inquiry, criticising the messages of the president, and
throwing the responsibility for the first aggressions upon the administration,
for sending a hostile foroe across the boundary line in opposition to the ad
vice of General Taylor, who said : " That in his opinion, no such movement
was necessary to the defence or protection of Texas." These resolutions
laid over under the rule of the house and were not called up again by Mr.

11
Lincoln, but they formed the basis of his first elaborate speech in congress,
which was delivered on the 13th of January of the following year. On the
first of Juue, 1848, the National whig convention met at Philadelphia, to
nominate a candidate for the presidency, and Mr. Lincoln was among its
delegates and gave his voice and vote for General Taylor ; returning to
congress, which was still sitting, he made a speech in support of his candi
date, in the course of which he made the remarks regarding General Cass's
military career repeated in our reference to the Black Hawk war. Upon the
adjournment of congress, which was not until the middle of August, he made
a short tour into New England, and spoke several times in favor of the elec
tion of General Taylor. It is to meeting him in the streets of Worcester, at
this time, that Governor Bullock so felicitously refers in his able eulogy
before the citizens of that town. It was at the second session of this con
gress that the Gott resolutions were brought forward, for the aboliticjn of
slavery in the district of Columbia, and Mr. Lincoln recorded his vote against
the measure, together with such men as Pendleton, Stephens and Toombs.
He subsequently himself offered a substitute for these resolutions, providing
for the gradual emancipation of the slaves in the district, by the purchase of
those then slaves by the government of the United States, for their full value,
and the freedom of all subsequently born. No definite action was taken
upon this substitute, and it remained among the unfinished business of the
session. His action in regard to this matter shows plainly that he regarded^
slaves as property under the constitution. Slavery was to him, as it was to
thousands of his fellow citizens, legally right and morally wrong, and it was
on this strong foundation, that its overthrow was so steadily contested ;
and it was not until the measure was forced upon him by the necessities of
the couutry, that he overrode those rights guarantied by the constitution and
extinguished slavery by one fell blow.
Mr. Lincoln's congressional career ended March 4th, 1849, and he was
succeeded by his former opponent, the late eloquent and gifted Edward D.
Baker, who so gallantly fell at the Ball's Blufl massacre. When General
Taylor entered office, Mr. Lincoln was a candidate for the appointment of
commissioner of the general land offioe, but he was unsuccessful ; he was,
however, tendered the position of secretary, and then of governor of Ore
gon, both of which he declined. On returning home, Mr. Lincoln entered
vigorously upon the arduous duties of his profession, and devoted himself to
them during a number of years following, but it is not to be supposed that
the great political convulsions of 1850-54 found him indifferent to the re
sult. This period of his career has been so fully brought before the public
during the last decade of years, that the writer does not propose to touch
upou it, more than to mention that his first attempt at what might be
termed a semi-literary undertaking, was produced at this time, when he
was invited to eulogize his old hero, Henry Clay, who had deceased in the
month of June, ,1853. It was considered we believe a failure, his /orie not
lying in that direction. Passing over the complimentary vote given to Mr.
Lincoln for the nomination of vice-president at the Philadelpliia Convention
of June, 1856, which nomimated Fremont and Dayton for its candidates in
the presidential campaign, which elected Mr. Buchanan, we reach his great
senatorial contest of ten years later, with the " little Stephen ' ,agin't .A

12
Douglas, which really first brought Mr. Lincoln prominently before the
country, and then, it was principally owing to his connection with his great
opponent that his name became so universally known. The two candidates
canvassed the state together, speaking at the same place on the same day.
It was conducted with marked ability on both sides, and awakened consider
able interest. Mr. Lincoln showed himself in debate, not far behind the
recognized leader of the democratic party in congress, and the avowed
aspirantfor the presidential chair; but there being a democratic majority
in the legislature, Mr. Lincoln was of course defeated. On being asked by
a friend how he felt after his defeat he said, " Very much like the stripling
who had bruised His toe, " too bad to laugh and too big to cry." Mr. Doug
las, in his first speech at the opening of this remarkable campaign, makes
this allusion to his antagonist " I take great pleasure in saying that I have
known personally and intimately for about a quarter of a century the worthy
gentleman who has been nominated for my place, and I will say that I regard
him as a kind, amiable and intelligent gentleman, a good citizen, and an
honorable opponent, and whatever issue I may have with him vrill be of
principle and not of personalities." In the winter of 1858, Mr. Lincoln
wrote in the form of a lecture a comprehensive history of inventions, begin
ning with the early ages, and ending with the latest productions of inven
tive art. This lecture was delivered once or twice, but like his only other
attempt of a similar character, his eulogy on Clay, was most unsatisfactory.
It was also in this year that Mr. Charles Lanman was preparing for publi
cation his " Dictionary of Congress " and in reply to an application made to
Mr. Lincoln for a sketch of his life, received the following concise memo
randum :
Born, February 13, 1809, in Hardin Couuty, Kentucky. Education defec
tive. Profession, a lawyer. Have been a captain of volunteers in the Black
Hawk war. Postmaster at a very small offioe. Four times a member of
the Illinois Legislature ; and was a member of the lower house of Congress.
Yours, A. Lincoln.
Towards the close of the next year, Mr. Lincoln had the opportunity
offered him of speaking face to face to an eastern audience, by an invita
tion being extended to him to lecture in Brooklyn, at Plymouth church.
He accepted the invitation conditioned on being allowed to make a political
speech, and appointed the following 37th of February for its delivery. The
speech, which it was finally concluded should be delivered at ,the Cooper
Institute, New York, under the auspices of the Young Men's Republican
Union, was by many regarded as the best and most elaborate he ever made.
It was very widely circulated and read, and prepared the minds of the
people for his nomination for the presidency. He spent several days in New
York after its delivery, and then made his second visit to New England,
speaking in several places on the political questions of the day. The agita
tions in the political world were rapidly increasing and insinuating themselves
into the minds of the people more and more, as it became manifest to them
that the life and existence ofthe nation depended upon their action on the new
topics now daily arising. Then fast followed the conventions of Baltimore,

13
Richmond and Chicago, each with its own pet party candidate for the presi
dential chair, and as the name of Abraham Lincoln was sent forth as one of
the nominees, the inquiring voice of the multitude cried out, " and who is
Abraham Lincoln?" At this day, that such could have been the case,
seems almost impossible, but nevertheless it is surely true ; and now no
name of the last half century is so vridely known and respected. Mr. lAn-
coln was at Springfield in the office of the State Journal, when he received
a telegraphic dispatch informing him of his nomination. He looked at it
in silence while those around him were rending the air with their shouts,
and then putting it intp his pocket quietly said : " There is a little woman
down at our house would hke to hear this, I'll go down and tell her."
On the 6th of November the election took place' throughout the whole
country, and what the result was is too well known to need a repetition
here. And now began a new life for him ; from this moment to the hour of
his death, he knew not what quiet or leisure was ; in accepting the presi
dency he resigned his privacy. He was no longer his own master, but the
very servant of those over whom he was a chosen master. On the eleventh
of the following February, Mr. Lincoln bade a long farewell to his home in
Springfield, and set out on his journey for the national capital. From the
platform ofthe car, just as he was starting, he addressed liis friends and
neighbors these beautiful and touching words :
" My friends : No one not in my position can realize the sadness I feel at
this parting. To this people I owe all that I am. Here I have lived more
than a quarter of a century. Here my children were born and here one of
them lies buried. I know not how soon I shall see you again. I go to
assume a task more difficult thau 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 diviue blessing 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 succeed, aud with which success is cer
tain. Again I bid you all an affectionate farewell."
The deep religious feeling which pervades this speeoh, marked him to the
close of his life. In nearly all his public messages, proclamations and
papers of every kind, he recognized our dependence upon God as individuals
and as a nation, not in the formal phrases of his predecessors and successors,
but in heartfelt words, showing the Christian spirit to be the all pervading
mainspring of his life. He had faith in the higher law ; in the higher law
giver. From Springfield Mr. Lincoln went to Indianapolis, and from a l&ief
speech delivered here, the outside world obtained the first glimpse of his
intended future policy. Visiting Cincinnati, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Cleve
land, Buffalo, Albany, New York, and Trenton, he arrived in Philadel
phia on the eve of Washington's birth-day 1861. Here it was that the plot
to assassinate him during his passage through Baltimore was fully unfolded
to him. Mr. Lincoln having listened to the detailed statement of Mr. Allan
Pinkertou, chiefof the National Police Agency, who with his assistants had
been mainly instrumental in discovering the conspiracy, said, that he had

14
promised to raise the American Flag over Independence Hall the following
morning, and also had accepted an invitation to a reception by the Pennsyl
vania legislature in the afternoon ofthe same day — " Both ofthese engage
ments I will keep if it costs me my life. If, however, after I have con
cluded these engagements, you oan take me in safety to Washington, I will
place myself at your disposal, and authorize you to make such arrangements
as you may deem proper for that purpose." The next morning Mr. Lincoln
was formally received in Independence Hall, and afterwards performed the
ceremony according to his promise of raising the fiag over the " birth place
of our liberties." In the afternoon of the same day he arrived in Harris-
burgh, and attended the reception given him by the legislature of the state.
Here he remained till nearly six o'clock in the evening, when accompanied
by Colonel Ward H. Lamon he was quietly driven to the depot of the Penn
sylvania Rail Road Company, and took a special train which was in waiting,
for Philadelphia, where he arrived in time to take the regular eleven o'clock
through night train for Washington, reaching his destination safely at the
usual hour, on the morning of Saturday the 33d. The city of Washington
was thrown into a fiutter of excitement by this unexpected arrival. Mr.
Lincoln's opponents ridiculed his fears, and his suppporters felt equally
ashamed that their choseu chief should have consented to sneak into the
capital " like a thief in the night." But the rapidly developing events soon
showed that the proper course had been pursiied. Mr. Lincoln, long after
wards in speaking ofthe oocasion, said to the Hon. Isaac N. Arnold, of Hli
nois : " I did not then, nor do I now, believe I should have been assassinated,
had I gone through Baltimore as first contemplated, but I thought it wise
to run no risk, when no risk was necessary." For a full, graphic and au
thentic statement of the facts pertaining to tliis event, the author would
refer to the " History and evidence of the passage of Abraham Lincoln from
Harrisburgh, Pa., to Washington, D. C, on the 33d and 33d of February,
1861," written by the chief agent in its detention, and published at Chicago
early in the year 1868.
The days preceding the inauguration passed in rapid succession, untU the
morning of the fourth of March broke beautifully clear, and found the vene
rable generalissimo of the army of the United States prepared for any
emergency. All the necessary arrangements for the ceremony having been
completed, at a few minutes past one, President Buchanan entered the sen
ate chamber with the president elect. Hon. E. D. Baker then a senator
from Oregon, introduced his old friend to the assembly, but there was no
very hearty welcome given to Mr; Lincoln as he stepped forward to read his
inaugural address. On its conclusion the oath of office was administered by
the chief justice of the United States, Hon. Roger Brooke Taney. His ad
dress was marked by a moderate and conciliatory tone, containing no reproach
to the south, no menace and no threat. On the other hand, it leaned
towards'them ; it assured them of certain protection of all their old rights
under the constitution, and closed with these words of warning aud entreaty :
" In your hands, my dissa;tisfied fellow countrymen, and uot mine, is the
momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you, you
can have no confiict without being yourselves the aggressors. You havo no
oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I have the

15
most solenrn one " to preserve, protect and defend it.'' " I am loth to close.
We are not enemies but friends. We must not be enemies. Though pas-
sion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mys
tic cords of memory, stretching from every battle field and patriot grave to
every living heart and hearth-stone all over this broad land, vrill yet swell
the chorus of the union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the
better angels of our nature.''
The address delivered, and the oath administered, the august ceremonies of
the occasion were conoluded, and passing back through the senate chamber,
the sixteenth president of the. United States was escorted to his future resi
dence, the White House. His first official act was the formation of his cabi
net, and of the seven chosen to be his counsellors, four had been rival candi
dates with him for the presidental nomination. On the 15th of April, 1861,
the third day after the bombardment of Fort Sumter was commenced.
President Lincoln issued his proclamation and call for seventy-fivethousand
men, to " suppress treasonable combinations and' cause the laws to be duly
executed." This proclamation and the imminent danger of the govern
ment united the north. The fall of Sumter, was the resurrection of patriot
ism. Four days later a temperate proclamation of blockade was made, and
the nation stood calmly on the defensive while the south was making the
most strenuous efforts for the aggressive. Seeing this the president con
vened Congress on the fourth of July, 1861, and asked for four hundred
thousand men and four hundred million dollars. Congress acted with the
utmost promptness and liberality, voting five hundred thousand men, and
five hundred million dollars, in aid of the war. Thus not only sustaining
the president, but giving him one hundred thousand more men, and one
hundred million dollars more money than he called for.
It is not the intention ofthe writer, to follow Mr. Lincoln's career through
the various acts and measures which arose out of the exigencies of the
times, in which was passed the closing years of his life ; to do so properly
would require a volume double the size of the present, and not only this,
bnt our passions and our prejudices have not had sufficient time to regard
the events of those days with that calmness and impartiality needed for the
historian's appreciative work. We will, therefore, note but a few leading
acts of his official life, and first among them for important results is the pro
clamation of emancipation of the first of January, 1863, and those prelimi
nary steps which brought it forth. On the sixth of March, 1863, President
Liucoln sent a special message to congress recommending a joint resolution
to compensate all states for their abolition of slavery, as a war measure and a
measure of public safety. The resolution to compensate was passed in both
houses and signed by the president ; and in his correspondence with both
Generals Fremont and Hunter, who had each declared martial law and the
abolition of slavery within their districts, he gives as 1 he reason for the revoca
tion of the emancipation part of their military proclamations, the fact that
they had transcended the laws of congress which he as executive was to exe
cute and not to obstruct. Next to the fatal mistake of commencing war at all,
the refusal of the slave states to accept of this proposition was their awful
blunder. On the twenty-second of September following, Mr. Lincoln issued
the conditional proclamation of emancipation, freeing the slaves of those
3

16
states and those sections of states which should be in rebellion on the 1st
of January, 1863, thus leaving it to the slave states to say, whether they
would save their pet institutions by returning to their allegiance or not. Two
days later the proclamation suspending the writ of habeas corpus was
issued. This measure created more universal and well founded dissatisfac
tion than any other of the administration. It attacked that dearest right
of man, the security of personal liberty. No one knew but that it might
be his necessity next to invoke its aid, but invoke it he would in vain.
Some of the, leading jurists of the day took up their pens in defence of the
writ against the action ofthe executive, while one alone, the Nestor" of our
bar, cast his argument in the scale, for its support. The works arising out
of this subject number many volumes, and are valuable as contributions to
the science of Constitutional Law.
Time rolled on, the new year fast approached, yet the insurgent states
gave no sign of their intention to accept the conditions held out to them in
the proclamation of the twenty-second of September. Nay, more, they in
dignantly rejected it. The first of January arrived, and with it came the
supplemental final words whicii sealed the fate of human slavery on this
continent forever. The original draft of the emancipation proclamation
was purchased' by Thomas B. Bryan, Esq., of Chicago, at the north-western
fair for the Sanitary Commission held at Chicago in the fall of 1868, and
the pen with which it was signed now belongs to the family of the late
George Livermore of Cambridge, Mass., it having been presented to Mr.
Livermore by President Lincoln soon after the important document was
completed, and transmitted to that gentleman through the Hon. Charles
Sumner, who has been justly styled " the best informed man on all subjects
in this country." At the time of the Philadelphia Sanitary Fair in June,
1864, twenty copies of this proclamation were beautifully printed on parch
ment paper, and signed at the request of two gentleman prominently con
nected with the movement, by the President and Mr. Seward, which signa
tures were afterwards attested as genuine by Mr. Lincoln's private secretary.
Colonel John G. Nioolay. One of these very interesting documents is now
in the possession of the writer.
The year which was heralded in by the proclamation of emancipation
saw the defeat at Chaneellorsville follow fast upon the still more disastrous
repulse at Fredericksburg. This was a sad beginning of the year's opera
tions, and was succeeded a few months later by the invasion of Maryland
and Pennsylvania by General Lee and his entire army. This movement
began on the 8d of June, and was accomplished so quickly and apparently
so easily that the whole country was thrown into a whirl of excitement and
fearful apprehension. At this juncture, with the army of the Potomac hast
ening to dispute the enemy's advance, its commander was relieved, and
General Meade called to that position. This seemed a most hazardous ex
periment. An army defeated and broken, marching on to battle in death's
struggle with a powerful and exultant foe, to have its le.ider changed when
on the very verge of conflict, appeared to be a movement calculated more to
dishearten than strengthen it ; but happily the result proved otherwise.

' Hon. Horace Binney, now in his ninety-third year.

17
The second day after Meade assunied command, the battle of Gettysburg
began, and it raged with terrific energy for three days. At the close of the
third day Lee having lost nearly forty thousand men in killed, wounded
and prisoners, and running short of ammunition, showed that he was too
exhausted to resume the fight. The contest was decided, the victory won,
northern soil was freed once more from southern tread. While these glad
tidings were ringing on the loyal heart of the north, came the welcome
news from the far-off city of the west, that the stronghold of the Mississippi
had surrendered. Thus the 4th of July, 1863, was celebrated with greater
exultation than would have been merely the eighty-seventh anniversary
of our independence. The state of- Penn sylvania having purchased its great
battle-ground, and consecrated it as a National Cemetery for the gallant
men who fell in its defence, on the 19th of November following, the public
dedication took place with solemn and impressive ceremonies. The formal
oration was delivered by the nation's gifted- son Edward Everett, and Mr.
Lincoln followed in a brief but appropriate address. The battle of Gettys
burg was in its result one of the most decisive of the war, and it, vrith the
victory at Vicksburg, gave great encouragement to the depressed spirits
of the people.
In December, 1863, Mr. Lincoln issued his proclamation of amnesty to all
those engaged in the rebellion, except such as were in the civil or military
service of the confederate governnient, or had left the civil or military ser
vice of the United States to aid that government. To this proclamation he
issued a supplementary one on the 34th of the following' March, explaining
its full intents, and defining more particularly those cases which might
claim its benefit. The time now came when nominations were to be made
for the occupant of the presidential chair during the four succeeding years,
and qn the 8tli of June, 1864, the republican convention met in Baltimore,
and unanimously chose Mr. Lincoln for re-election. Two months later the
Democratic convention assembled in Chicago, and nominated Major General
George B. McClellan, for his opponent. Andrew Johnson and George H.
Pendleton received respectively the republican and democratic nominations
for the vice-presidency. The election of the following November gave Mr.
Lincoln an overwhelming majority, and on the 4th of March, 1865, he was
re-inaugurated into the presidential office for a second term. His address
was very brief but touching ; and the words, " with malice towards none,
with charity for all," with which it closed, vrill fall hereafter into that sacred
number of phrases,, not scripture, but which men often cite unwittingly, as
thougli they were.
The affairs of the rebellion were hurrying to a crisis. Sherman, the
ablest and most accomplished soldier of the war, had completed his great
march so far as to bring its bearing upon the confederate capital, while
Grant was gradually narrovring the circle which his lines formed around
the same stronghold. On the 3d of April, Lee was forced to evacuate Rich
mond, and on the morning of the 14th, the federal troops took possession of
the burning city, and proceeded to extinguish the fiames. This virtually
ended the war. President Lincoln, who had been at City Point for several
days, visited the city immediately after its capture, in company with his
youngest son, and Admiral Porter. He entered it, not as the conquering hero

18
in triumphal car, but as the private citizen with his little boy by the hand.
On the Oth he returned to Washington, and there received the news that
Grant, who had been pursuing Lee, had forced him to surrender. The other
confederate generals rapidly followed the example of their chief, and on the
36th of May, there was left no organized rebel force anywhere -witliin the ter
ritory of the United States. The five days succeeding Mr. Lincoln's return
from City Point were indeed memorable ones. The surrender of the southern
forces filled the people ¦with inexpressible joy. Houses w$re illuminated,
bells rung, and salutes fired, and the chief magistrate seenied full of hope
and happiness. In the midst of the rejoicings at the capital, it was an
nounced that the president and General Grant would .visit Ford's theatre
on the evening of the 14th. Grant declined attending, but the president,
never willing to disappoint the people, accepted the invitation, and with
Mrs. Lincoln and one or two friends entered the president's box after the
performance had begun. He was greeted with great enthusiasm. As the
play progressed, a pistol shot was heard and supposed at the instant to be
a part of the performance, until a man with a bloody dagger in his hand
leaped to ' the stage from the box where was the presidential party, ex
claiming, "Sic semper tyrannis — The South is avenged," and then escaped
behind the scenes. The president had been shot and the assassin had
escaped. The ball entered the brain, creating a mortal wound, from which
Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of the United States, expired on the
morning of the 15th of April, 1865, at about the hour of seven.
The Kev. Dr. Gurley, who was pastor of the Presbyterian Church in
Washington, which Mr. Lincoln usually attended, has given the follovring
beautiful account of the scene at the Presidents' death bed : " When sum
moned on that sad night to the death bed of President Lincoln, I entered
the room fifteen or twenty minutes before his departure. All present were
gathered anxiously around him, waiting to catch his last breath. The
physician with one hand upon the pulse of the dying man, aud the other
hand laid upon his heart, was intently watching for the moment when life
should cease. He lingered longer than we had expected. At last the
physician said : ' He is gone ; he is dead.' Then I solemnly believe that for
four or five minutes, there was not the slightest noise or movement in that
awful presence We all stood transfixed in our positions, speechless, breath
less, around the dead body of that great and good man. At length the
secretary of war, who was standing at my left, broke silence, and said :
' Doctor, will you say anything ?' I repUed, ' I will speak to God,' said he
' do it just now.' And there, by the side of our fallen chief, Qod put it into
my heart to utter this petition, that from that hour, we and the whole na
tion might become more than ever united in our devotion to the cause of
our beloved, imperiled country. When I ceased, there arose from the lips of
the entire company, a fervid and spontaneous ' Amru.' "
And has not the whole heart of the loyal nation responded " Amen !" Was
not that prayer thus offered, responded to in a most remarkable manner'?
When in our history have the people of this land been found more closely
bound together in purpose and heart, than when the telegraphic wires bore all
over tho country, the sad tidings that President Lincoln was dead ? Yes, his
death raised a truce to faction and called forth a unanimity of sentiment

19
that astonished and delighted all. Millions, lately in some degree opposed,
were now united in feeling, and vied with each other in honoring his
memory. The day following his decease, was that most joyful of all re
ligious festivals, Easter Sunday ; and as each minister ascended his pulpit,
he laid aside his carefully prepared sermon for the day, and from the fullness
of his heart, gave vent to words of sorrow and consolation for the awful
calamity which had befallen the nation and created such a universal
feeling of sadness and horror in the breasts of the whole community. But
one short week before, the Sunday which opened upon Passion-week, that
week of darkness and sorrow which contains the day when our Sa'riour
was crucified and became the one offering for the sins of the world, each
congregation had been gathered together to render thanks for the final
triumphs vouchsafed our arms, and on that occasion one of the most gifted
Episcopal divines selected for his text the words of St. John, " It is expe
dient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole
nation perish not ;" little thinking that words only coincident with the
hallowed day, would so soon have such a literal fulfillment.
At noon,, on Wednesday of Easter week, was thp time appointed for the
funeral solemnities of the murdered president at the national capital, and
in every parish of the land, simultaneously were held memorial commemo
rative services. A whole people were in tears ; a whole nation bowed down
in mourning ; a whole country draped in woe. The funeral ceremonies were
very solemn and impressive, and were attended by all holding official posi
tions at the time, in Washington. After the ser^rices at the White House,
the body was taken to the Capitol, and there exposed to public view during
the next day. On the morning of the 3l8t, the funeral cortege moved for
his old home, where was to be the final resting place of the late president,
taking nearly the same route which he had taken when he came from that
home to assume the presidency, four years before. Baltimore, Harrisburg,
Philadelphia, New York, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Columbus, Indian
apolis and Chicago, were honored with being the temporary custodians of
his remains, until at last, on the morning of the third day of May, the
funeral procession reached Springfield. Here, for twenty-four hours his old
friends and neighbors pressed into the State House, where his body was, to
gain a last glimpse of that homely but familiar face. At noon of the next
day, his followers took up their last march, and conducted the remains to
Oak Ridge Cemetery, a beautiful spot about two miles from the city, where
with proper and appropriate ceremonies, all that was mortal of Abraham
Lincoln was consigned t" the earth that gave him.
The vice-president, Mr. Johnson, ha^ring succeeded immediately on the
death of the president to the vacant office, on the 35th of April issued his
proclamation recommending Thursday May 35th, " as a day for special hu
miliation and prayer in, consequence of the assassination of Abraham Lin
coln, late President of the United States," but that day being Ascension-day
he issued a second proclamation postponing the special services until Thurs
day, June 1st, when some ofthe finest productions of the pulpit were called
forth. Each church vied with its neighbor in honoring the martyr presi
dent, and many, very many, sought to perpetuate its action by placing in
jiermanentforni the eulogy, sermon or address delivered by its respective

20
minister. It is in no slight degree owing to this laudable ambition that
the writer is indebted for the materials for his present work.
Mr. Lincoln was certainly a most remarkable man. He was undoubtedly
well fitted for the times in which he lived, and the emergency that con
fronted him. He began with a very moderate degree of public confidence
and sympathy. A large proportion of the community had at the time of
his first election, and for a considerable period afterwards, a painful sense of
distrust, as to his qualifications for the position to wliich he had been called.
This distrust was slow to yield. Good things were done, but they were all
attributed, on account of this preconceived opinion of his ability, to the ex
cellence of his advisers, while the evils and the mistakes were all laid to
him. His physical organization must not be overlooked as one of the
sources of his success. The great practical men of the world have been,
not necessarily of large, but of strong bodily frames. To the heathen phi
losopher a sound mind in a sound body seemed the greatest good, "mens
sana in corpore sana." The discipline of his early life prepared his frame
for the laborious duties which were to devolve upon him. It is true that
this discipline did not develop his form into a beautiful and graceful one.
His warmest friends could not claim that for him, but they could declare
that " his large eyes in their softness and beauty expressed nothing but be
nevolence and gentleness," and that a pleasant smile frequently brought
out more vi^ridly the earnest cast of his features, which were serious even
to sadness. He has been called by one of his best friends " a wiry, awkward
giant." He was six feet four inches high ; his arms were long almost dis-
proportionably so ; his mouth and nose were both exceedingly large ; his
features were coarse, and his large hands exhibited the traces of toil. He
was not specially attentive to dress, though by no means slovenly. The
formal politeness of fashionable life he had not ; though the gentleness of
the unspoiled child of nature he had. He said once that he had never
studied the art of paying compliments to women, yet they never received a
grander one than he paid when he declared " if all that has been said by
orators and poets since the creation of the world in praise of women were
applied to American women, it would not do them justice for their con
duct during the war." It has been stated that he had none of the grossness
of life. He was not a licentious man. He was not addicted to the use of
profane language. He did not gamble. He was temperate and he did not
use tobacco in any form. Only those who have known the fearful extent
to which these habits prevail among our public men, can appreciate the
honor 'which the absence of them confers upon the late president. His hon
esty passed into a proverb, and his integrity was beyond reproach. It
was not called in question, even in the hight of political excitement
and vituperation. His qualities of heart were such as commended him
to all men. He was naturally disposed to think well of his race. His
prepossessions were generally in favor of a man. He would rather
love than hate him ; in fact he seemed as if he could not hate him if
he would. The entire absence of vindictiveness, either personal or political,
was one of the ripe fruits of Ms native tenderness. Was he ever heard to
have said a hard thing of his opponents, or known to have uttered a single
word showing personal hate or even personal feeling ? Between him and

21
his predecessors no parallel can be drawn, for no other president ever held
the reins of power through four years of ¦virulent rebellion. It is therefore
impossible to say how much l)etter or how much worse others would have
done. Not graceful nor refined, not always using the English language correctly,
he proved to be a meet and proper man for the times. He had the greatness
of goodness ; not a powerful nor a brilliant intellect, but plain practical good
sense ; a sincere purpose to do right ; an eminent catholic spirit that was
ready to listen to all sides, and a firm unshaken belief in the expediency of
justice. When others with higher and more profound faculties might have
failed, he succeeded, guided by his matchless sagacity and prudence, and
common sense and native shrewdness. His thoughts were his own ; they
were fresh and original, and were clothed -with a quaintness, a directness, a
simplicity of style, peculiar to himself. He had a vein of humor which
marked him from all other men in his position, and lost him, perhaps, the
reputation of official dignity ; and yet this very humor, which in most im
portant emergencies could not refrain from making the witty repartee or
telling the pointed anecdote, undoubtedly helped him to endure those fatigues
and cares under which he would otherwise have sunken. This story of his
life, which the writer has endeavored to tell with truthful simplicity and
without any of those adornments usually bestowed so bountifully upon
similar works, cannot be more appropriately closed than ¦with the words of
Daniel Webster, on the death of President Taylor, which indeed seem almost
prophetic of Mr. Lincoln : " He has left on the minds ofthe country a strong
impression ; first of his absolute honesty and integrity of character ; next
of his sound, practical good sense ; and lastly of the mildness, kindness and
friendliness ofhis temper towards his countrymen."
Note. — The following bibliographical monograph comprises a feature never before in
troduced into a like production, and for its general accuracy the compiler can vouch. It
ie, the statement appended to each title of ffie number of copies printed. This has been
obtained at vast trouble, and although not entirely perfect is so nearly so, as to merit the
consideration due to any new step onward in this dilflcult field of literature . It is hoped
that the list will be found complete : but that any one noticing inaccuracies or omis
sions will communicate the same to the writer. The titles as printed have all been
transcribed from the original works by the compiler himself, with the exception of
those marked with an asterisk ; for these and their correctness he is indebted to divers
friends, not the least among whom he has the pleasure of mentioning his publisher and
colaborateur Mr. Boyd. C. H. H.
Philadelphia, April, 1870.