Title: Life of Abraham Lincoln - Little Blue Book Ten Cent Pocket Series No. 324
Author: Bowers, John Hugh, 1875-
Language: English
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LITTLE BLUE BOOK NO. 324
Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius

TEN CENT POCKET SERIES NO. 324



Life of Abraham
Lincoln

John Hugh Bowers, Ph.D., LL.B.

Dept. History and Social Sciences,
State Teachers' College, Pittsburg, Kans.

HALDEMAN-JULIUS COMPANY
GIRARD, KANSAS
Copyright, 1922,

Haldeman-Julius Company

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.


The story of Lincoln, revealing how one American, by his own honest
efforts, rose from the most humble beginning to the most high station of
honor and worth, has inspired millions and will inspire millions more.
The log cabin in which he was born, the ax with which he split the
rails, the few books with which he got the rudiments of an education,
the light of pine knots by which he studied, the flatboat on which he
made the long trip to New Orleans, the slave mart at sight of which his
sympathetic soul revolted against the institution of human
slavery--these are all fraught with intense interest as the rude forces
by which he slowly builded his great character.

Great suffering taught him great sympathy. His great sympathy for men
gave him great influence over men. As a lonely motherless little boy
living in the pitiless poverty of the backwoods he learned both humility
and appreciation. Then from a gentle step-mother he learned the beauty of
kindness.

As a clerk in a small store that failed, as a defeated candidate for the
legislature, as Captain in the Black Hawk War, as student of Law in his
leisure moments, as partner in a small store that failed, as Postmaster
at the little village of New Salem, as Deputy Surveyor of Sangamon
County, as successful candidate for the legislature, as member of the
legislature and as country lawyer, he was learning to love his fellow
men and to get along well with them, while keeping his own conscience
and building a reputation for honesty. When as a member of Congress and
as a successful lawyer his proved ability brings him a measure of
security and comfort he is not elated. And when his fellow men,
reciprocating his great love for them, and manifesting their confidence
in his integrity, make him President of the Republic he still remains
the humble brother of the common people.

But fate did not decree that he should enjoy the honors he had so richly
deserved. The White House was not a resting place for him. In the hour
of his election the Nation for which he prayed was divided and the men
that he loved as brothers were rushing headlong toward fratricidal war.
He who loved peace was to see no more peace except just a few hopeful
days before his own tragic end. He who hated war must captain his dear
people through their long and mighty struggle and share in his gentle
heart their great sacrifices. As the kindly harmonizer of jealous
rivals, as the unifier of a distracted people, as the sagacious leader
of discordant factions, he proved his true greatness in the hours of
the nation's peril. In many a grave crisis when it seemed that the
Confederacy would win and the Union be lost the almost superhuman wisdom
of Lincoln would see the one right way through the storm. For good
reasons, the followers of Lincoln came to believe that he was being
guided by God Himself to save the Union.

The genealogists of Lincoln trace his ancestry back to Virginia and to
Massachusetts and to those Lincolns who came from England about 1635.
The name Abraham recurs frequently among the Lincolns and our President
seems to have been named after his grandfather Abraham who was killed by
the Indians in Kentucky in 1778, when Thomas, the father of the
President, was only ten years of age. Thus left fatherless at a tender
age in a rude pioneer community, Thomas did not even learn to read. He
worked about as best he could to live, became a carpenter, and in 1806
married his cousin, Nancy Hanks, the daughter of Joseph Hanks and his
wife, Nannie Shipley, a sister of Thomas Lincoln's mother, Mary.

The first child of Thomas Lincoln and his wife Nancy was a daughter. Our
President, the second child, was born February 12, 1809, in a log cabin,
three miles from Hodgensville, then Hardin, now LaRue County, Kentucky.
When little Abraham was seven years old his father moved to Indiana and
took up a claim near Gentryville, Spencer County, and built a rude
shelter of unhewn logs without a floor, the large opening protected only
by hanging skins. In this discomfort they lived for a year, when they
erected a log cabin. There was plenty of game, but otherwise the fare
was very poor and the life was hard. In 1818 little Abraham's mother,
delicate, refined, pathetic and too frail for such rude life, sickened
and felt that the end was near. She called her little children to her
bed of leaves and skins and told them to "love their kindred and worship
God," and then she died and left them only the memory of her love.

Thomas Lincoln made a rude coffin himself, but there were no ceremonies
at that most pathetic funeral when he laid his young wife in her
desolate grave in the forest. Little Lincoln was nine years old, and the
mystery of death, the pitiless winter, the lone grave, the deep
forest--shivering with his sister in the cold cabin--it all made a deep
impression on the sensitive boy.

Late in the year 1819 Thomas Lincoln went back to Kentucky, and there
courted and married a widow named Sarah Buck Johnston, who had once been
his sweetheart. She brought with her some household goods and her own
three children. She dressed the forlorn little Lincolns in some of the
clothing belonging to her children. She was described as tall, straight
as an Indian, handsome, fair, talkative and proud. Also she had the
abundant strength for hard labor. She and little Abraham learned to love
each other dearly.

Abraham went to school in all less than a year, but this good step-mother
encouraged him to study at home and he read every book he heard of
within a circuit of many miles. He read the Bible, Aesop's Fables,
Murray's English Reader, Robinson Crusoe, The Pilgrim's Progress, A
History of the United States, Weem's Life of Washington and the Revised
Statutes of Indiana. He studied by the fire-light and practiced writing
with a pen made from a buzzard's quill dipped in ink made from brier
roots. He practiced writing on the subjects of Temperance, Government,
and Cruelty to Animals. The unkindness so often common to those frontier
folks shocked his sensitive soul. He practiced speaking by imitating the
itinerant preacher and by telling stories to any who would give him an
audience. He walked fifteen miles to Boonville to attend court and
listen to the lawyers.

At nineteen he was six feet and two inches tall, weighed one hundred and
fifty pounds, had long arms and legs, slender body, large and awkward
hands and feet, but not a large head. He is pictured as wearing
coon-skin cap, linsey-woolsey shirt, and buckskin breeches that were
often too short. He said that his father taught him to work but never
taught him to love it--but he did work hard and without complaining. He
was said to do much more work than any ordinary man at splitting rails,
chopping, mowing, ploughing, doing everything that he was asked to do
with all his might. It was at this age that he went on the first trip
with a flat boat down to New Orleans. This was an interesting adventure;
and there had been sorrows, also; his sister Sarah had married and died
in child-birth.

In the spring of 1830 the roving spirit of Thomas Lincoln felt the call
of the West and they set out for Illinois. John Hanks met them five
miles northwest of Decatur in Macon County, where on a bluff
overlooking the muddy Sangamon they built a cabin, split rails, fenced
fifteen acres and broke the prairie. Young Lincoln was twenty-one and
free, but he remained at home during the summer, helping his father and
his devoted step-mother to establish their new home. The following
winter he split the historic rails for Mrs. Nancy Miller--"four hundred
for every yard of jeans dyed with walnut juice necessary to make him a
pair of trowsers."

In the spring, a pioneer adventurer, Denton Offut, engaged Abraham, with
Hanks and one other helper, to take a boat load of provisions to New
Orleans, for the wages of fifty cents a day and a bonus of sixty dollars
for the three. This and the preceding trip down the river gave Lincoln
the sight of slavery which caused him to say, "If ever I get a chance
to hit that thing I'll hit it hard."

New Salem was a very small village destined to be of only a few years
duration. Here Offut erected a small general store and placed Lincoln in
charge while Offut having other unimportant business ventures went about
the community bragging that his clerk, Lincoln, was the best man in the
country and would some day be president of the United States. Offut's
boasting attracted the attention of the Clary's Grove boys, who lived
near New Salem, and they determined upon a wrestling match between
Lincoln and their champion bully, Jack Armstrong. Lincoln did his best
to avoid it, and a prominent citizen stopped the encounter. The result
was that Armstrong and his gang became Lincoln's friends and later gave
him the most hearty political support at times when the support of just
such men as Armstrong was an important political asset.

During this time Lincoln continued his studies, and feeling the need to
study English Grammar he ransacked the neighborhood until he found trace
of one some six miles away and walked over to buy or borrow it; brought
it back in triumph and studied it exhaustively.

About this time we have some narratives concerning his honesty that
compare favorably with the story of Washington and the cherry tree.
While he was keeping Offut's store a woman overpaid him four pence and
when he found the mistake he walked several miles that evening to return
the pennies before he slept. On another occasion in selling a half pound
of tea he discovered that he had used too small a weight and he hastened
forth to make good the deficiency. Indeed one of his chief traits all
his life was absolute honesty.

He was chosen to pilot the first steamboat, the Talisman, up the
Sangamon. At Springfield they held a banquet to celebrate the event but
Lincoln was not invited because they only invited the "gentlemen" and
Lincoln was only the pilot.

He spent all his spare time studying Law or History, and had been from
his youth an admirer of the romantic figure of Henry Clay. He adopted
most of Clay's principles as his own, especially that of the gradual,
compensated emancipation of slaves, to which ideal he clung all his
life. With such interests, it was natural that when Offut failed and
his job as store clerk ended, he should announce himself as a candidate
for the legislature. His campaign was interrupted by the Black Hawk War.
Lincoln volunteered. The Clary's Grove boys enlisted and elected him
captain. He showed his kindness and courage when during the campaign he
found his whole command, mutinous and threatening; and facing them he
placed his own body between them and a poor friendly Indian, who, with
safe conduct from General Cass, had taken refuge in camp. He saw no
fighting and killed no Indians but was long afterward able to convulse
Congress with a humorous account of his "war record." The war ended in
time for him to get back and stump the county just before the election
in which he was defeated.

In partnership with a man named Berry they bought out the little store
in New Salem; but Berry drank and neglected the business. Lincoln was
strictly temperate, but he spent all his spare moments studying
Blackstone, a copy of which legal classic he had fortunately found in a
barrel of rubbish he had obligingly bought from a poor fellow in
trouble.

With both members of the firm thus preoccupied the business "winked
out." Berry died, leaving Lincoln the debts of the firm, twelve hundred
dollars,--to him an appalling sum, which he humorously called "the
national debt"; and on which he continued to make payments when he could
for the next fifteen years. For a time he was postmaster of New Salem,
an office so small that Andrew Jackson must have overlooked it. But the
experience shows how scrupulous he always was; for when years afterward
a government agent came to Springfield to make settlement Lincoln drew
forth the very coins that he had collected in the postoffice, and though
he had sorely needed the loan of them he had never even borrowed them
for temporary use.

For a time he had a better position as Deputy Surveyor of Sangamon
County. His work was accurate and he was doing well when in 1834 he
again announced as a candidate for the legislature and was elected.

At Vandalia at the session of the legislature he first saw Stephen A.
Douglas, then a lobbyist, and said of him, "He is the least man I ever
saw." Lincoln at this session seemed to be learning, studying men and
methods and prudently preparing for future success rather than
endeavoring to seize opportunities prematurely.

This is the time when Lincoln fell in love with Ann Rutledge, a
beautiful young woman of New Salem who was already betrothed to another.
The other lover went East and did not return. Lincoln had hopes, but Ann
took sick and died of brain fever. He was allowed to see her as she lay
near the end, and the effect upon his kindly nature was terrible. There
settled upon him a deep despondency. That fall and winter he wandered
alone in the woods along the Sangamon, almost distracted with sorrow.
When he seemed on the verge of insanity a friend, Bowling Green, took
him to his own home and nursed him back to health, and the grief
settled into that temperamental melancholy, which, relieved only by his
humor, was part of the deep mystic there was in him, part of the
prophet, the sadness that so early baptised him in the tragedy of life,
and taught him to pity a suffering world.

Again he ran for the legislature, announcing his policy: "for all
sharing the privileges of the government who assist in bearing its
burdens; for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage who pay taxes
or bear arms (by no means excluding females). If elected, I shall
consider the whole people of Sangamon as my constituents, as well those
that oppose as those that support me. While acting as their
representative I shall be governed by their will upon all subjects upon
which I have the means of knowing what their will is; and upon all
others I shall do what my own judgment teaches me will best advance
their interests." He was always fundamentally democratic, was so close
to the heart of humanity that he felt its mighty pulsations and knew
intuitively what his people were thinking. His contemporaries thought
that he had a dependable occult sense of public opinion.

One incident of this campaign shows Lincoln's versatility at repartee.
George Forquer, who had been a Whig, changed over to be a Democrat and
was appointed Register of the Land Office. His house, the finest in
Springfield, had a lightning rod, the only one that Springfield had ever
seen. At a meeting near Springfield, Lincoln spoke, and when he had
finished, Forquer replied with some condescension, calling Lincoln the
"young man." Lincoln listened to the attack with folded arms and then
made a spirited reply ending with the words: "The gentleman calls me a
young man. I am older in years than I am in the tricks and trades of
politicians. I desire to live and I desire place and distinction, but I
would rather die now than, like the gentleman, live to see the day that
I would change my politics for an office worth three thousand dollars
per year, and then feel compelled to erect a lightning rod to protect a
guilty conscience from an offended God."

The Whig ticket was elected, Lincoln leading, and the Sangamon
delegation, seven representatives and two senators all over six feet
tall were called the "Long Nine." At Vandalia Lincoln was the leader of
the Long Nine and labored to advance legislation for public improvements
to be financed by the sale of public lands. He confided to a friend that
he was dreaming of the Governorship and was ambitious to become the
"DeWitt Clinton of Illinois."

The Assembly voted for a colossal scheme of railroads and canals, and
authorized a loan of twelve millions. These vast projects afforded
unlimited opportunities for special legislation and in all this
atmosphere of manoeuvre Lincoln was most skillful. He knew human nature
and how to handle it. Log-rolling was the order of the day and so
skillfully did the Long Nine function that they succeeded in removing
the capital from Vandalia to Springfield. Though Lincoln did prove that
he knew "the tricks and trades of the politician" he was true to his
convictions; as shown by the fact that, when the legislature passed
resolutions "highly disapproving" of the formation of abolition
societies and the doctrines promulgated by them, he voted against the
resolutions; and furthermore he drew up a protest against the
resolutions, and inducing his colleague, Dan Stone, to sign it with him,
had his protest entered on the journal for March 3, 1837. While this
protest was cautiously worded it did declare "the institution of slavery
is founded upon injustice and bad policy." This was a real gratuitous
expression of a worthy ideal contrary to self interest, for his
constituents were at that time certainly not in any way opposed to
slavery. It was only within a few months after this very time that the
atrocious persecution and murder of Lovejoy occurred in the neighboring
town of Alton.

When the Long Nine came home bringing the capital with them Springfield
planned such a celebration as had not been seen since the day the
Talisman came up the Sangamon. To this banquet Lincoln was not only
invited but placed at the head of the board; having been only the pilot
of the enterprise this time did not exclude him. He made a speech and
made many friends in Springfield. The time was now opportune for him to
move to Springfield. So in the year 1837, Abraham Lincoln, being
twenty-eight years of age and a lawyer, packed his meager possessions in
a pair of saddle-bags and moved to the new Capital, then a town of less
than two thousand inhabitants, here to begin a new era in his life.
Besides being very poor he still carried the burden of the "national
debt" left to him from the failure of the partnership with Berry, but he
had friends and a reputation for honesty. In time he pays the debt, and
his friends increase in numbers.

The morning that Lincoln went into the store of Joshua Speed in
Springfield, and indicated that he was looking for a place to stay,
Speed said: "The young man had the saddest face I ever saw." Speed
indicated that Lincoln could share Speed's own bed in a room above;
Lincoln shambled up, dropped his saddle bags, shambled down again and
said: "Well, Speed, I am moved." With John T. Stewart, his comrade in
the Black Hawk campaign, he formed a law partnership. Lincoln and
Stewart were both too much interested in politics to give their
undivided devotion to the law. During their four years together they
made a living, and had work enough to keep them busy but it was not of
the kind that proved either very interesting or lucrative.

He spent much time making public speeches on a variety of occasions and
subjects, obviously practicing the art of eloquent address for his own
improvement. In 1838 he was again elected to the legislature and was
minority candidate for Speaker.

Now Mrs. N. W. Edwards was one of the local aristocrats of Springfield,
and her sister, Mary Todd from Kentucky, came to visit her. Mary Todd
was beautiful and Lincoln and Douglas were rivals for her hand.
Observers at the time thought that with a brilliant and talented girl
the graceful and dashing Douglas would surely be preferred. But Miss
Todd made her own selection and she and Lincoln were engaged to be
married on New Year's day, 1841.

The day came and the wedding was not solemnized. Now there came upon him
again that black and awful melancholy. He wandered about in utter gloom.
To help him, his good friend Joshua Speed took him away to Kentucky for
a trip. Upon his return a reconciliation with Mary Todd led to their
marriage, November, 1842. To Lincoln's kindly manner, his
considerateness and his self-control, she was the opposite. The rule
"opposites attract" may explain the union, and if the marriage was not
ideally happy it may be conjectured that one more happy might have
interfered with that career for which Destiny was preparing him.

In 1841, Stewart went to Congress and Lincoln dissolved the partnership
to form another with Judge Stephen T. Logan who was accounted the best
lawyer in Illinois. Contact with Logan made Lincoln a more diligent
student and an abler practitioner of the law. But two such positive
personalities could not long work in harmony, so in 1843 Lincoln formed
a partnership with William H. Herndon, a man of abolitionist
inclinations who remained Lincoln's junior partner until Lincoln's death
and became his biographer. But they were very poor. The struggle was
hard, and Lincoln and his bride were of necessity very frugal. In 1841
he might have had the nomination for Governor, but he declined it;
having given up his ambition to become the "DeWitt Clinton of Illinois."
It will be remembered that the internal improvement theories had not
worked so well in practice. The panic of 1837 had convinced both him and
his supporters of the unwisdom of attempting such improvements on too
large a scale at one time. Though he had been mistaken he seems not to
have lost the support of his followers, for they were mistaken with him;
and the experience shows that "it is more popular for a politician to be
with his constituents in the wrong than to be in the right against
them."

Though he declined the nomination for Governor, his ambitious wife
encouraged his natural inclination to keep his eye on the political
field, and to glance in the direction of Congress. His ambitions were
temporarily thwarted. On Washington's birthday in 1842, during the
Washington Temperance movement he made a speech on temperance. While the
whole address was admirable and conceived in a high humanitarian tone
it did not please all. He was full of a wise and gentle tolerance that
sprang alike from his knowledge and his love of men.

When accused of being a temperance man he said "I don't drink."

He was criticised, and because of this, and because his wife was an
Episcopalian, and an aristocrat, and because he had once accepted a
challenge to fight a duel, which friends prevented, his congressional
ambitions had to be postponed. Also there were other candidates. He
stood aside for Hardin and for Baker. In 1844 he was on the Whig
electoral ticket and stumped the state for Henry Clay whom he greatly
admired.

Finally in 1846 the Whigs nominated him for Congress. The Democrats
nominated the pioneer Methodist preacher, Peter Cartwright, who used the
Washington's birthday address against Lincoln and even the charge of
atheism, which had no worthy foundation, for Lincoln was profoundly
religious, though he never united with any church. He said that whenever
any church would inscribe over its altar as the only condition for
membership the words of Jesus: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength, and thy
neighbor as thyself;" he would join that church. Lincoln's life proved
his sincerity in this statement.

Lincoln made a thorough campaign, watching most carefully all the many
interests which can contribute to the success of a candidate, and was
elected by an unusual majority. Moreover, he was the only Whig who
secured a place in the Illinois delegation that year.

In 1847, when he took his seat in the thirtieth Congress, he saw there
the last of the giants of the old days,--Webster, Calhoun, Clay and old
John Quincy Adams, dying in his seat before the session ended. There
were also Andrew Johnson, Alexander H. Stephens and David Wilmot.
Douglas was there to take his new seat in the Senate. The Mexican War
was drawing to its close. The Whig party condemned the war as one that
had been brought on simply to expand slave territory. Generals Taylor
and Scott as well as many other prominent army officers were Whigs. This
fact aided materially in justifying the Whig policy of denouncing the
Democrats for entering into the war and at the same time voting adequate
supplies for the prosecution of the war. Lincoln entered heartily into
this party policy.

A few days after he had taken his seat in Congress he wrote back to
Herndon a letter which closed humorously: "As you are all so anxious for
me to distinguish myself I have concluded to do so before long."
Accordingly, soon after he introduced a series of resolutions which
became known as the "Spot Resolutions."

These resolutions referred to the President's message of May 11, 1846,
in which the President expressed the reasons of the administration for
beginning the war and said the Mexicans had "invaded our territory and
shed the blood of our own citizens on our own soil." Lincoln quoted
these lines and then asked the President to state the "exact spot" where
these and other alleged occurrences had taken place. While these
resolutions were never acted upon, they did afford him an opportunity to
make a speech; and he made a good speech; not of the florid and fervid
style that had characterized some of his early efforts; but a strong,
logical speech that brought out the facts and made a favorable
impression, thus saving him from being among the entirely unknown in the
House.

With reference to his future career a paragraph concerning Texas is here
quoted. He says: "Any people, anywhere being inclined and having the
power, have the right to raise up and shake off the existing government,
and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a
most sacred right,--a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the
world. Nor is this right confined to a case in which the whole people of
an existing government choose to exercise it. Any portion of such
people, that can, may revolutionize, and make their own of so much of
the territory as they inhabit." This political philosophy, so
comfortably applied to Texas in 1846, is just what the Confederacy
wished in 1861; and just exactly what Lincoln did not wish in 1861.

As Lincoln knew all along, his course concerning the war and the
administration was displeasing some of his constituents; some of whom
would rather be warlike than to be right, others honestly favored
expansion. Like most of the other Whigs he had voted for the Ashmun
amendment which said that the war had been "unnecessary and
unconstitutionally commenced by the President." He learned that some of
the people of Springfield would be displeased with an attitude that
seemed to weaken the administration in a time of stress, but with
Lincoln it was a matter of conscience and he met it fairly without
evasion or any sort of coloring. And later when Douglas accused him of
being unpatriotic he replied that he had not chosen to skulk, that he
had voted for what he thought was the truth, and also reminded his
hearers that he had always voted with the rest of the Whigs for the
necessary supplies to carry on the war after it had been commenced. He
would have liked renomination, but Judge Logan was nominated and was not
elected.

He was on the electoral ticket and stumped New England and Illinois for
Taylor, as soon as Congress adjourned. The New England speeches were
full of moral earnestness. In Boston he heard Governor Seward speak and
said: "I reckon you are right. We have got to deal with this slavery
question and give more time to it hereafter than we have been giving."
In December he went back to Washington for the second session and worked
consistently for the Wilmot Proviso, designed to exclude slavery from
territory acquired from Mexico. At this second session he voted against
a bill to exclude slavery from the District of Columbia, because he did
not like the form of the bill and then introduced a measure himself
designed to serve the same purpose.

When his term as Congressman expired he sought but failed to obtain the
position of Commissioner of the General Land Office. He was offered the
position of Governor of the newly organized territory of Oregon, but
this, due somewhat to the sensible advice of his wife, he declined. Then
he went back to Springfield to practice law again, and to travel the
muddy roads of the old Eighth Circuit, a somewhat disappointed and
disillusioned man; but as ever the same sincere, kindly brother to all
his fellow men.

During the years from 1850 to 1860 the tall figure of Lincoln, garbed
in black, continued to be familiar to the people of Springfield, as he
strode along the street between his dingy law office on the square and
his home on Eighth Street. He was clean in person and in dress, and
diligent in his law practice, but he was not good at collecting what was
coming to him; badly as he needed money in those days. He had finally
paid off his debts, but the death of his father had left his devoted
step-mother needing some help; and his shiftless stepbrother to be
expostulated with in letters full of very kindly interest and wholesome
advice.

He worked hard and was rapidly becoming known as an excellent lawyer. He
made friends of the best men in the state, and they referred to him
affectionately as "Honest Abe" or "Old Abe," but they always addressed
him respectfully as "Mr. Lincoln." His humor, never peccant, was related
to his brooding melancholy, and was designed to smooth out the little
rough places in life, which he so well understood, with all its
tragedies and tears. Men loved him, not alone for his stories, but for
his simplicity of life, his genuine kindness, his utter lack of
selfishness. There was a fascination about his personality. He seemed
somehow mysterious and at the same time simple. In fact he was always
trying to make ideas seem simple and clear, and told stories to
accomplish that purpose. He tried to make the case clear to the jury,
and the issues clear to his hearers. In all his life which had ever its
heavy sorrows, these years were probably the brightest for him. He
enjoyed the confidence of his people and the devotion of his friends.
His fellow men of whatever degree in life, judge, lawyers, witnesses,
jurors, litigants, all gathered affectionately around him to hear him
talk and to tell stories. But he was not a mere story teller. His
conversation was such as to draw men to him for its very worth. He was
fundamentally serious, dignified, and never given to uncouth
familiarities.

Though so notably kind, so deeply sympathetic, and at times so given to
humor, when he was aroused he was terrible in his firmness, his
resolution to win for the cause that was right, his stern rebuke for
injustice, his merciless excoriation of falsehood and his relentless
determination to see the truth prevail. False or careless witnesses
dreaded his cross-examinations, and his opponents dreaded his
effectiveness in handling a case before a jury.

Though he was called homely, there was a commanding dignity about his
presence; his appearance inspired confidence; and when in the heat and
passion of forensic effort, his features lighted up with a strange and
compelling beauty and attractiveness. He was never petty, never quibbled
and never tried to gain an unfair advantage or even use an unworthy
means of attaining a worthy end. Consequently courts and juries believed
what he said. He was a poor lawyer when on the wrong side of the case,
and would not take a bad case if he knew it. Upon one occasion, when, in
the very midst of a trial, he discovered that his client had acted
fraudulently, he left the courtroom and when the judge sent for him, he
sent word back that he "had gone to wash his hands." He had too much
human sympathy to be the most effective prosecutor unless there was a
clear case of Justice on his side; and he was too sympathetic to make
money--for his charges were so small that Herndon and the other lawyers
and even the judge expostulated with him. Though his name appears in the
Illinois Reports in one hundred and seventy-three cases,--a record
giving him first rank among the lawyers of the state, his income was
probably not much over two or three thousand a year. And he was engaged
in some of the most important cases in the state, such as Illinois
Central Railroad Company v. The County of McLean, in which he was
retained by the railroad and successfully prevented the taxation of land
ceded to the railroad by the State,--and then had to sue to recover his
modest fee of five thousand, which was the largest he ever received. In
the McCormick reaper patent litigation he was engaged with Edwin M.
Stanton, who treated him with discourtesy in the Federal Court at
Cincinnati, called him "that giraffe," and prevented him from delivering
the argument which he had so carefully and solicitously prepared. Such
an experience was, of course, very painful to his sensitive nature, and
it shows how great he was that he could forgive the injury entirely as
he did later when he appointed Stanton as his Secretary of War, despite
the protest of friends who recalled it all to him.

In one of his most notable murder cases he defended William or "Duff"
Armstrong, the son of his old friend, Jack Armstrong. It was a
desperate case for William and for his mother Hannah, who had also been
a warm friend to Lincoln when he was young. The youth was one of the
wildest of the Clary's Grove boys, and a prosecuting witness told how,
by the light of the moon, he saw the blow struck. Lincoln subjected the
witness to one of his dreadful cross-examinations and then confronted
him with the almanac of the year in which the crime was committed to
show that the moon had set at the hour at which the witness claimed to
have seen the blow struck by Armstrong. The boy was acquitted and
Lincoln would accept no fee but the tears and gratitude of his old
friends.

Another interesting case was one in which a principal witness was the
aged Peter Cartright who had more than ten years before waged a campaign
against Lincoln for Congress. Cartright was the grandfather of "Peachy"
Harrison who was charged with the murder of Greek Crafton. It was a
dramatic moment when the old Methodist minister took the stand in front
of Lincoln, and as his white head bowed, Lincoln had him tell how, as
Greek Crafton lay dying, among his last words were "I want you to say to
the man who killed me that I forgive him." After such a dying
declaration and such a scene Lincoln was sure to make a speech that
would move the hearts of any jury with pity and forgiveness such as he
himself always felt for all souls in trouble; and Harrison was
acquitted. It was such experiences at the bar that made him the great
lawyer that he was; and the great advocate of whatever he believed to
be right; and prepared him to win the great cause of humanity before
the whole people of the nation and of the world.

In 1852 Lincoln campaigned for Scott. In 1854 he seemed to be losing
interest in politics when the news of the abrogation of the Missouri
Compromise aroused him. This had been brought about by Douglas, the new
leader of the Democrats, then one of the most influential men in
Congress, and after the days of Webster, Clay and Calhoun, one of the
foremost politicians in America. Douglas came back to Illinois to find
many of his constituents in the North displeased with what they thought
he had done to please the Democrats of the South. They thought that he
was sacrificing the ideal of limiting slavery in order to advance his
ambitions to become President. He set about to win back his state. He
spoke in Springfield; and a few days later, Lincoln replied in a speech
that delighted his friends and convinced them that in him they had a
champion afire with enthusiasm for the cause of freedom.

Somewhat against his will he was nominated and elected to the
legislature in the fall of 1854, but when he saw the dissatisfaction in
the Democratic party he was encouraged to resign from the legislature
and become a candidate for the United States Senate. The Democrats,
though not in perfect harmony, had a majority, and he could not be
elected, but helped to turn the tide for the revolting faction of the
Democrats. Though disappointed he knew that the struggle was only
begun.

The nation was aroused over the question of slavery. While many good
people desired peace rather than agitation concerning such an irritating
problem, the question of slavery in the territories had to be decided
and the whole question of slavery would not down. In 1856 the Republican
party was organized for the state of Illinois in a big convention at
Bloomington at which Lincoln made a strong speech; and in the Republican
National Convention held in Philadelphia a few weeks later he was given
110 votes for Vice-President. He was committed to the new Republican
party and campaigned vigorously for Fremont, their candidate for
President.

Lincoln's enthusiastic friends said he was already on the track for the
Presidency. As the contest of 1858 for the Senate approached, it again
appeared that the Democrats would be divided and Lincoln had some
confidence of success. Out in Kansas the proslavery men, by an unfair
vote, had adopted the Lecompton Constitution favoring slavery; President
Buchanan urged Congress to admit Kansas with that fraudulent
constitution; Douglas opposed that constitution and voted against the
admission of Kansas as a slave state; thus angering the President and
the South and delighting the Republicans of the North.

Now the time was approaching when, in the 1859 session of the Illinois
legislature, Douglas would have to stand for re-election to the United
States Senate. The legislators would be chosen in the campaign of 1858
largely on that issue. Douglas had become the foremost man in the
Democratic party, and any man who could beat him would have national
recognition. The Republicans of Illinois nominated Lincoln, who
challenged Douglas to a series of joint debates.

The famous Lincoln-Douglas Debates are full of interest and repay a full
and careful study, but they will be treated very briefly in this volume.

Lincoln entered upon these debates in a lofty spirit and to the end
pursued a high course, fraught with kindness, fairness, magnanimity and
most commendable dignity. He said, "While pretending no indifference to
earthly honors, I do claim, in this contest, to be actuated by something
higher than anxiety for office," and apparently he was.

Lincoln looked into the future and foresaw the coming campaign of 1860
for the Presidency. He foresaw that Douglas would be the leader of the
Democrats in that campaign and conducted the debate accordingly.

Lincoln thought not alone of momentary issues, but also of eternal
verities. Some things which his friends wished him not to say, for fear
it would lose him votes, he said, because they were things that were
true and ought to be said: for example, "This nation cannot endure half
slave and half free.... A house divided against itself cannot stand.... I
do not expect the house to fall.... I do not expect the Union to be
dissolved. I do expect it to cease to be divided. It will become all one
thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest
the further spread of it and place it where in the public mind it is in
the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it until
it will become alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new, North
as well as South." While such utterances probably did cost him votes at
the time, later his people could see that his prophetic vision had been
right and their confidence in him, always strong, was accordingly
increased.

Lincoln, with the training of the lawyer, the wily cross-examiner, the
profound jurist, the farsighted statesman, forced Douglas into a dilemma
between the northern Democrats of Illinois and the southern Democrats of
the slave states. Lincoln was warned by his friends that Douglas would
probably choose to please the Democrats of Illinois and be elected
United States Senator; but Lincoln replied to his friends: "I am after
larger game: the battle of 1860 is worth a hundred of this." Time proved
that Lincoln was right. While Lincoln's friends guessed wisely as to the
prediction that Douglas would choose to secure the Senatorship by
pleasing the Democrats of Illinois, many of whom were opposed to
slavery, Lincoln was wise in his prediction concerning the effect on the
campaign of 1860 for President.

For example, one of the questions Lincoln asked was: "Can the people of
a United States Territory, in any lawful way, against the wishes of any
citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to
the formation of a state constitution?" If Douglas should answer, "No,"
he would alienate Illinois; and if he should answer "Yes," he would
alienate the South. In a remarkably adroit manner Douglas answered,
"Yes," and delighted his friends in Illinois; but later the effect in
the South was clearly against him.

In the United States Senate Douglas had proved a match for the best
debaters in the land, but he remarked after his series of debates with
Lincoln that in all his sixteen years in the Senate he had not met one
whom he would not rather encounter than Lincoln.

To the very end of the debate Lincoln kept the argument pitched on a
very high plane of dignified logical search for clear truth; which was
something unusual in political contests. He kept referring to such ideas
as, "Is slavery right or wrong?" "It is the eternal struggle between
right and wrong." Lincoln was pleading for humanity.

The debates were continued in seven of the largest cities of the states,
and between the joint engagements the protagonists were speaking daily
under circumstances of great strain. The prestige of being a Senator
gave to Douglas comforts of travel not always accorded to Lincoln and at
the end of the campaign he was worn out. When the election was over the
popular vote was very close, but the members of the legislature gave
Douglas a majority and he was returned to the Senate. But the campaign
split the Democratic party and made Lincoln a national figure.

Lincoln, tired and disappointed and financially embarrassed by his
personal expenses, could still cheer his friends with a joke. He said,
"I am like the boy that stumped his toe--it hurt too bad to laugh, but
he was too big to cry." He added, "However, I am glad I made the race.
It gave me a hearing on the great and durable question of the age which
I could have had in no other way; and though I shall now sink from view
and be forgotten, I believe that I have made some marks for the cause of
civil liberty which will endure long after I am gone."

But he was not to be forgotten. He received congratulations from all
parts of the nation. He got many calls to come and speak in the largest
cities, most of which he declined, because he must return to his law
practice and earn some money. However, when Douglas appeared in the
Gubernatorial contest in Ohio, the temptation was too great, and he
accepted calls to reply in Columbus and Cincinnati before very large
audiences. He also accepted a call to speak in Cooper Union Institute in
New York City, where he delivered a notable speech before a large and
distinguished audience presided over by William Cullen Bryant. Lincoln
says that he felt uncomfortable and "imagined that the audience noticed
the contrast between his western clothes and the neat fitting suits of
Mr. Bryant and others who sat on the platform." He spoke with great
earnestness, and the next day in the Tribune, Horace Greeley said: "No
other man ever made such an impression in his first appeal to a New York
audience." From New York he went on a speaking trip through New England
where he made a deep impression. He went home with a national
reputation. The strange story of his early life appealed to the masses
of the people of the North; he was the subject of conversation and of
inquiry. A friend sought data for a biography.

He said, "I admit that I am ambitious and that I would like to be
President. I am not insensible to the compliment that you pay me and the
interest that you manifest in the matter, but there is no such good luck
in store for me as the Presidency of the United States. Besides, there
is nothing in my early history that would interest you or anybody else."
He also added, "I do not think that I am fitted for the Presidency"; and
that, "men like Seward and Chase were entitled to take precedence." But
the editor of the Central Illinois Gazette brought him out and after
that the movement spread strongly.

Such friends as Davis, Sweet, Logan and Palmer and also his faithful
partner, Herndon, continued to urge him to become an active candidate.
He finally consented and became busy at the work of marshalling the
support of his friends. He used all his well-known skill as a politician
to forward his campaign, though nothing derogatory is to be inferred
from these words concerning his methods, which were entirely honorable.
He wrote a friend: "I am not in a position where it would hurt me much
not to be nominated on the national ticket; but it would hurt me not to
get the Illinois delegation ... can you help me a little in this matter
at your end of the vineyard?" The allegiance of his own state was soon
assured. At Decatur, May 9 and 10, 1860, the Republican state convention
met in the big Wigwam, and Governor Oglesby, who presided, said, "A
distinguished citizen whom Illinois is delighted to honor is present and
should be invited to a place on the platform." Amid tumultuous applause
Lincoln was lifted over the heads of the crowd to the platform. At that
moment John Hanks theatrically entered bearing a couple of old fence
rails and a flag and a placard on the rails, "Made in Sangamon bottom in
1830 by Abraham Lincoln and John Hanks." Again there was a sympathetic
uproar and Lincoln made a speech appropriate for the occasion. When the
tumult subsided the convention resolved that "Abraham Lincoln is the
first choice of the Republicans of Illinois for the Presidency and their
delegates are instructed to use every honorable means to secure his
nomination, and to cast the vote of the state as a unit for him."

One week later, May 16, the national Republican convention met at
Chicago in the "Wigwam," which had been built to hold ten thousand
persons. Lincoln's friends, Davis, Judd, Palmer, Swett, Oglesby, were
there working "like nailers," night and day without sleep. The
candidates were Seward of New York, Lincoln of Illinois, Cameron of
Pennsylvania, Chase of Ohio, Bates of Missouri; and others of less note.
Seward's friends hoped, as Lincoln's friends dreaded, that Seward might
be nominated by a rush on the first ballot. Lincoln's followers,
contrary to his wishes, made a "necessary arrangement" with Cameron of
Pennsylvania by which he was to have a cabinet place in return for
giving his support to Lincoln, who was nominated on the third ballot.
William M. Evarts, who had led for Seward, made the usual motion to make
the choice unanimous, which was done with tremendous tumult of applause.
Hannibal Hamlin of Maine was nominated for Vice-president. Blaine says
of Hamlin, "In strong common sense, in sagacity and sound judgment, in
rugged integrity of character, Mr. Hamlin has had no superior among
public men."

Down in Springfield, Lincoln was waiting, and when he got the news, he
said, "There is a little woman down on Eighth Street who will be glad to
hear this news," and he strode away to tell her.

Douglas was in Washington when he heard the news, and remarked, "There
will not be a tar barrel left in Illinois tonight."

At once a committee of the convention were deputed to go to Springfield
and give Lincoln formal notice. This ceremony, so elaborate in later
days, was then very simple and immediate. They called upon Lincoln at
his own home, where he was already feeling gloomy with the
responsibility. The committee felt much misgiving as they noted his
appearance and got their first impressions; but later, when he became
aroused and spoke fitting words to which life were added by the fire of
his earnest countenance, they felt reassured, and went away delighted.

In all the history of America, the selection of George Washington to
lead the army of the Revolution, is the only event to be compared in
good fortune with this nomination of Abraham Lincoln; but to the country
as a whole he was comparatively obscure and unknown. The "wise men" of
the nation had some misgivings. While "Honest Abe, the rail splitter,"
might sound well to the masses, the party leaders could not be assured
that rail splitting and mere honesty were sufficient qualifications for
the President of a great republic in a great crisis. Nevertheless Seward
and Chase supported him with a sincerity that delighted him, and the
entire party entered into the campaign with great enthusiasm.

And very early in the campaign it seemed that the Republicans were quite
likely to win; for the Democrats, in their convention at Charleston,
divided; the Northern Democrats being for Douglas and the Southern
Democrats against him. They adjourned to Baltimore, where Douglas was
nominated, after which the extreme Southerners bolted and nominated
Breckenridge. Also the border states organized a new party which they
called the Constitutional Union Party and nominated John Bell.

Douglas made a most energetic campaign, even making speeches in the
South, but the questions that Lincoln had made him answer in the great
debate in Illinois in 1858 were not forgotten by the Southerners, who
would have nothing to do with him, but supported Breckenridge.

Lincoln remained quietly in Springfield during the campaign, exercising
most careful discretion as to what he said and the little that he
wrote. The Governor placed his own rooms at the statehouse at Lincoln's
disposal, where he met callers and talked and joked pleasantly with all
who came, but was careful to say nothing that would add to the confusion
of tongues that already existed.

Some of the most radical abolitionists of the North were not at all
pleased with Lincoln because he was conservative, practical, recognized
slavery as existing under the constitution, stood for preserving the
Union as the first consideration, restricting the extension of slavery,
and hoped for gradual compensated emancipation, but favored nothing
revolutionary or threatening to the integrity of the Union.

Many of the most ardent, but reasonable, abolitionists supported him as
having the most practical policy for the time being.

The total popular vote was 4,680,000. Lincoln got 1,866,000; Douglas,
1,375,000; Breckenridge, 846,900; Bell, 590,000. Of the electoral vote,
Lincoln got 180; Douglas, 12; Breckenridge, 72; Bell, 39. Lincoln
carried the Northern States, Breckenridge the Southern States, Bell the
border states of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, and Douglas New
Jersey and Missouri. To show how the people were divided, Douglas,
Breckenridge and Bell had some votes in nearly all states both North and
South. Lincoln had no votes in the states farthest south, but carried
all states north of the border states.

The career of Lincoln as President was made infinitely more difficult
as well as all the more creditable to him by reason of the fact that he
was not the choice of the majority of the people, but of less than half
of them; even less than half of the people of the Northern States.

South Carolina "hailed with delight" the news of the election of Lincoln
as a justification for immediate secession, which they desired, rather
than compromise or postponement; their Senators resigned; before
Christmas the Palmetto flag floated over every federal building in that
state, and early in January they fired on the ship "Star of the West" as
she entered Charleston harbor with supplies for Fort Sumpter. By
February seven of the Southern States--South Carolina, Mississippi,
Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas--had seceded from the
Union and formed "the Confederate States of America," with Jefferson
Davis of Mississippi as President, and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia
as Vice-President.

Lincoln could, meanwhile, only wait in Springfield, during this most
trying interregnum; while the uncertain and impotent Buchanan allowed
the reins of government to slip from his weak hands, and many
influential men at the North counselled for peace at any price. Lincoln
was distressed, absent-minded, sad but also calm as he worked on his
inaugural address--a tremendous responsibility under the circumstances;
for in that address he must announce a policy in one of the gravest
crises that ever confronted a ruler in this world--sorrowful unto death,
he said, "I shall never be glad any more." Also he was beset with
office-seekers and troubled with his cabinet appointments; for the
agreement that Judge Davis had made at the Chicago convention with
Cameron of Pennsylvania was not to his liking.

As the time approached for his inauguration he visited his step-mother,
made a pilgrimage to the grave of his father, and on February 11 started
for Washington, after taking leave at Springfield, of his old friends,
who gathered at the station early in the morning and stood bareheaded in
the rain while he spoke these beautiful words of affectionate farewell
from the platform of the coach:

"My friends, no one not in my situation can appreciate my feelings of
sadness at this parting. To this place and the kindness of these people
I owe everything. Here I have lived for a quarter of a century and
passed from a young man to an old man. Here my children have been born
and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when or whether ever I may
return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon
Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being who ever
attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail.
Trusting to Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be
everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well.
To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend
me, I bid you an affectionate farewell."

On the way he made short informal speeches--tactfully avoiding any
announcement of policy--at Columbus, Cleveland, Buffalo, Albany and New
York. On Washington's birthday at Philadelphia, he celebrated the
admission of Kansas as a free state by raising over Independence Hall a
new flag of thirty-four stars. He was deeply moved and spoke fervently
of "that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gives
liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but also hope to all
the people of the world for all future times; which gave promise that in
due time the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and
that all should have an equal chance." And finally, "If this country
cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say I
would rather be assassinated on this spot than to surrender it."

His reference to assassination may have been due to the report of
detectives that they had discovered a plot to kill him as he went
through Baltimore. Contrary to advice concerning his personal safety, he
kept his engagement to address the legislature at Harrisburg before
going on to Washington. In the Capital and the country thereabout were
many Confederate sympathizers.

Even during the few days that he was in Washington before his
inauguration, men over the country were betting that he would never be
inaugurated. March 4, 1861, dawned in bright sunshine. At noon the aged
Buchanan called upon Lincoln to escort him to the Capital, there to
place upon the shoulders of the great Westerner the burden which had
been too heavy for the infirm old diplomat. Together they drove down
Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol where the ceremony was held in the
east portico. Distinguished officials were there, but the crowd was
small, because of the rumors of tragedy--and the aged Commander Scott
had posted troops with instructions, "if any of them raise their heads
or show a finger, shoot to kill."

The moment came for the new President to take the oath of office.
Lincoln, attired in clothes obviously new, was plainly embarrassed, and
stood for an awkward moment holding his high hat in one hand and in the
other a gold-headed ebony stick. Douglas, his old rival, stepped
promptly forward with delightful grace and relieved him of hat and cane
and held them for him--a beautiful incident the significance of which
was long remembered. Senator Baker of Oregon--one of his old Springfield
friends--formally presented him, and after he had read his address, the
aged Chief Justice Taney, who had written the Dred Scott Decision,
administered the oath of office.

His address, for which the nation had long been waiting, was read
distinctly, so that all could hear--hear him say that "misunderstandings
had caused differences;"--disavow any intentions to interfere with the
existing institution of slavery, and even declare himself in favor of a
new fugitive slave law. But concerning the Union he was firm. He clearly
put the Union above any issue concerning slavery. He said: "The Union of
these States is perpetual.... No state upon its own mere motion can
lawfully get out of the Union.... I shall take care, as the Constitution
itself expressly enjoins me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully
executed in all of the States," and he was determined "to hold, occupy,
and possess the property and places belonging to the Government and to
collect the duties and imposts." And he closed with the beautiful
peroration founded upon one of Seward's suggestions: "I am loathe to
close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though
passion may have strained, it must not break the bonds of our affection.
The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and
patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad
land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as
surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

The four years and forty days that remain of Lincoln's life is but the
story of his wonderful part in our great Civil War.

When Lincoln turned from his inauguration to take up the duties of his
office he faced a responsibility greater than that which had rested upon
Washington, as great as had ever rested upon any man on this planet in
all the ages. His own dear country--that nation which lovers of mankind
had hoped would lead the world in advancing human welfare, was already
rent asunder and everywhere the men who had been accustomed to lead in
thought and action were divided. Men of influence at the North advised
peaceful separation. Radials at the South declared that they would take
Washington and make it the Confederate Capital. Prominent men at the
North declared that the South could not be and should not be coerced.
And with these terrible problems puzzling him, Lincoln was also pestered
with office-seekers until he remarked, "This struggle and scramble for
office will yet test our institutions." For his Cabinet he chose William
H. Seward, Secretary of State; Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the
Treasury; Simon Cameron, Secretary of War; Gideon Wells, Secretary of
the Navy; Caleb B. Smith, Secretary of the Interior; Edward Bates,
Attorney-General; Montgomery Blair, Postmaster-General.

The first day after inauguration the whole problem was presented to him
in a letter from Major Anderson with his hungry soldiers at Fort
Sumpter. He wanted provisions and reinforcements; twenty thousand
soldiers would be necessary to hold the fort, and the whole standing
army numbered sixteen thousand men. General Scott advised evacuation.
Lincoln said, "When Anderson goes out of Fort Sumpter I shall have to go
out of the White House." The military advisers differed: the cabinet
differed; and while Lincoln pondered over the problem, Seward acquiesced
in the general assumption that he rather than Lincoln was the real head
of the Government; and accordingly prepared and laid before Lincoln
"Some Thoughts for the President's Consideration," in which after
complaining of the "lack of policy" he boldly proposed to make war on
Spain and France, and seek "explanations from Great Britain and Russia,"
and suggested that the direction of this policy be devolved by the
President "upon some member of his cabinet," and indicating with modest
significance "it is not my especial province; but I neither seek to
assume or evade responsibility." Lincoln met this proposal in a
magnanimous spirit, saying, "As to the proposed policy, if this must be
done I must do it.... When a general line of policy is adopted, I
apprehend that there is no danger of it being changed without good
reason, or continuing to be a subject of unnecessary debate; still, upon
points arising in its progress I wish, and suppose that I am entitled to
have, the advice of all the cabinet."

Thus Seward came to understand, as the nation later understood, who was
the head of the government, and how wise and capable he was; and this
superiority, Seward was great enough to freely acknowledge two months
later in the words: "Executive force and vigor are rare qualities ...
the President is the best of us."

On April 12 the Confederates fired on Fort Sumpter, and by that act of
aggression unified and aroused the North. Douglas promptly assured the
President of his support and telegraphed his followers that he had given
his pledge "to sustain the President in the exercise of his
constitutional functions to preserve the Union, maintain the government
and defend the Federal Capital." Thus ended the talk of compromise,
conciliation, concession, and also the discussion of the right or wrong
of slavery. The President in his patient, kindly wisdom had
substituted the issue of Union, and had waited until the Confederacy was
the aggressor. On April 15 he called for 75,000 volunteers and called
Congress to convene in extra session July 4.

The response was immediate and resolute. The North, glad that the long
suspense was over, offered hundreds of thousands of men for the Union.
The Confederates threatened to capture Washington and make it the
Confederate capital, and for a few days there was grave fear that they
would do so. The Sixth Massachusetts was assaulted by a mob in the
streets of Baltimore, four soldiers and twelve rioters killed and many
wounded; and the Southern sympathisers in Maryland objected to the
passing of soldiers through that state. The President, as usual
conciliatory and patient but firm, said, "there is no piece of American
soil too good to be pressed by the foot of a loyal soldier as he marches
to the defense of the capital of his country."

Among the President's great tasks then were to prevent the secession of
any more states, to prevent European recognition of the Confederacy, and
to create an army and navy. His diplomacy saved for the Union Maryland,
Kentucky and Missouri.

With increasing confidence and power the President watched over men and
events; cautiously and patiently, with mistakes and successes; amid
acrid criticism, noisy abuse and malignant misrepresentation, he made
his slow sure way.

The first disaster at Manassas staggered and steadied the North. The
President called to the command of the army of the Potomac, General
George B. McClellan, who had been winning small successes and sending
large telegrams in Western Virginia. He was brilliant, bold,
spectacular, a good organizer and soon trained the strong young raw
recruits--farmers and artisans--into one of the finest armies the world
had ever witnessed. While McClellan was drilling and preparing in the
East, Fremont in the West assumed the authority to issue a proclamation
emancipating the slaves of all non-Union men in Missouri; an act which
delighted the abolitionists of the North but created consternation in
the border states and added to the perplexities of the President. In
order to save for the Union cause the border states of Maryland,
Kentucky and Missouri the President had to revoke the proclamation of
Fremont and suffer the thoughtless abuse of the abolitionists who even
talked of impeachment. They saw only the immediate and moral issue of
slavery rather than the ultimate political issue of Union--in their
premature haste to free a few slaves they would have lost the whole
cause both of freedom and of Union. Lincoln loved freedom as much as
they but was more wise; nevertheless the patient President suffered much
from the misunderstanding. His patience was never exhausted though
terribly tried by the unjust criticism from many sources, by the piques
and prides of new-made Generals who felt able to command armies though
they could not command their own tempers; by the impertinent Buell who
failed to move into East Tennessee and stop the Confederate
depredations against loyal citizens; and by the unappreciative McClellan
who was too young to understand the President's fatherly solicitude, and
who drilled and drilled but did not go forward to fight.

In the light of the troubles that the President had with embryo-Generals
one can appreciate the narrative that a caller finding him pondering
over some papers asked what he was doing and got the reply, "O nothing
much--just making a few Generals." And once when a message bearer
gravely told him that the enemy had captured a couple of Generals and
some mules, he replied, "What a pity to lose all those mules."

Bull Run had made the people more cautious about crying "on to
Richmond," and so all Washington took holidays and enjoyed going out to
see McClellan's grand army manoeuvres--all except the President for whom
there was to be no more joy--no more holidays. To a sympathetic friend
he replied, "I want not sympathy for myself but success for our cause."

Again the wisdom of the President was tested and proved in the case of
Mason and Slidell, the Confederate commissioners to Great Britain, whom
a Federal warship had taken from a British mail packet. A British
ultimatum demanded immediate restitution and apology, while public
sentiment at home demanded that they be retained; but the President
averted trouble with England by sending the commissioners on their way.

In the President's message to Congress, some days later, he made no
reference at all to this affair because he knew when to be silent as
well as when to explain.

Evidence of the true greatness and the forgiveness of the President and
that he put the cause far above any personal consideration is in the
fact of his appointing Edwin M. Stanton Secretary of War, to succeed
Cameron to whom he had given the post as Minister to Russia. Stanton was
a Democrat, a friend of McClellan, and had never ceased to speak of
Lincoln with that gross abuse with which he had greeted Lincoln the
lawyer in the McCormick case at Cincinnati in 1859. But with all
Stanton's injustice to Lincoln--his revilings and his insults--he
accepted the cabinet place when Lincoln offered it to him. But if
Stanton was truculent, a tyrant and a bully--infinitely more
important--he was honest and strong in office and broke the ring of
grafters who had been robbing the government, and did his work
heroically. That was what the President wished. And Stanton soon learned
as others learned that Lincoln was master of every situation. Lincoln's
friends opposed the appointment of Stanton and reminded the President of
how crudely Stanton had treated him at Cincinnati, but the President had
no thought for himself or his own future. He was concerned only to get
the men who could best serve the great cause.

Lincoln's peculiar fitness for the tremendous tribulations of the
Presidency at that time is further proved by his experiences with the
recalcitrant McClellan. The General had been drilling and getting
ready for six months,--both President and public desired action; but the
General wished to become so fully prepared that an assured and decisive
victory would end the war. The President was patient, persuasive,
reasonable: the General was querulous, petty and sometimes actually
insulting. The two differed as to their plans for advancing upon the
Confederates. While the General assumed a contempt for the opinions of a
civilian, time has shown that the President was wise.

Burdened as the great heart was with the weight of the nation,
additional sorrows came into the White House when his two boys, Willie
and Tad, fell ill with typhoid fever. By day and by night the
grief-crazed father divided his time between watching the bedside of his
boys and watching over the struggling nation. Though always religious in
the deepest sense, the death of Willie seemed to strengthen his insight
into the mysteries of the spiritual life. For awhile he seemed
grief-crazed, and ever after, the great soul that had always been
compassionate was even more tender in its broodings over all the people
of the nation, both South and North, and in many beautiful instances he
softened the severities of war.

During the early part of the war the North was not at all unanimous in
its opposition to slavery, and could only be united in the purpose to
save the Union; but slavery could not be ignored. From the Southern
standpoint the war was caused by slavery, and even the Union generals
were compelled to deal with fugitive slaves that came within their
lines. Halleck sent them out of camp; Buell and Hooker allowed their
owners to come and take them; Butler held them as "contraband of war."
As the war dragged on longer than the people had anticipated the
abolition sentiment in the North grew until from press and pulpit there
came adjurations to "free the slaves." The politicians told the
President the "will of the people," and the preachers told him the "will
of God"; but the great mind of the President held his own counsel, for
he knew that the slave-holding but loyal border states presented a
peculiar problem.

Early in 1862 he recommended to Congress the adoption of a joint
resolution that the "United States co-operate with any state which may
adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such state pecuniary
aid." The resolution was adopted, but the border states would have
nothing to do with the plan. Later General Hunter in proclaiming martial
law over certain Southern territory, proclaimed "the persons in these
states, heretofore held as slaves, forever free." The President revoked
the order as he had revoked a similar action on the part of Fremont,
adding firmly, "whether it be competent for me as Commander-in-Chief of
the Army and Navy, to declare the slaves of any state or states free,
and whether at any time, in any case, it shall have become a necessity
of government to exercise such supposed power, are questions which,
under my responsibility, I reserve to myself." And again he appealed to
the people of the border states to adopt his plan of gradual compensated
emancipation, proved the wisdom of his plan by unanswerable logic, and
showed that the cost of such compensation was much less than the cost of
the probable prolongation of the war. The loyal slave-holders of the
border states were not ready to give up their slaves.

Then the President began to contemplate emancipation, but kept his
purposes to himself; kept his secret so well that even after he had
determined upon emancipation and was being criticised for not taking
that step he replied to his critics, "My paramount object is to save the
Union and not either to save or destroy slavery." Horace Greeley
retorted with abuse, indicating that Greeley was unable to see the
wisdom of the President's policy--for those whose support was necessary
to win the war were not yet ready for emancipation.

When preachers called to reveal to him, "the will of God" he replied,
"If it is probable that God would reveal His will to others on a point
so connected with my duty, it might be supposed He would reveal it
directly to me."

All these months he had been at work with his slow but accurate thought,
framing in secret the most momentous document in American history since
the Declaration of Independence. He did this in the cipher-room of the
War Department telegraph office, where he was accustomed to spend
anxious hours waiting for news from the boys at the front, and also to
seek what rest he could in thus hiding away from the never-ending stream
of tormentors, office-seekers, politicians and emissaries of sage
advice.

Emancipation was in his mind even while, for good reasons, he made no
reference to it. He waited for the right time--waited for
victory--waited in great patience and great anguish. And when he did
first announce his purpose of emancipation it was to apply only to those
"persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state
the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United
States." Thus sparing the loyal border states holding slaves, and
allowing a way of escape for others that should cease their rebellion.
It was conservative but wise. On the one hand the radical abolitionists
were not satisfied, and on the other hand the masses were not all ready
to give him hearty support in it. But he said, "I must do the best I can
and bear the responsibility of taking the course which I think I ought
to take." It was thus this silent self-reliant man, without intimates,
without supporting friends, bore almost alone on his resolute shoulders,
the mighty weight of responsibility. Once more he urged upon Congress
his old policy of gradual compensated emancipation. He plead:--"We say
that we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this.
We know how to save the Union. The world knows that we know how to save
it. We--even we here--hold the power and bear the responsibility. In
giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free,--honorable
alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or
meanly LOSE THE LAST BEST HOPE OF EARTH. Other means may succeed, this
cannot fail. The way is peaceful; generous; just; a way which, if
followed, the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless."
But they would not, and the lonely man in the White House,--kind eyes
more deeply sunken, bronze face more deeply furrowed, sad tones more
deeply affected--went about his duties asking sympathy nor counsel of
anyone.

On New Year's Day, 1863, after the great reception was over, he signed
the final Proclamation of Emancipation. Though at home there was still
ridicule and abuse, in England the effect of the Proclamation was
significant; for there the laboring men were in dire distress because
they could get no cotton for their mills; but these English
laborers--hearing of the Emancipation Proclamation--felt that the cause
of the Union was the cause of freedom and of labor--and though the
wealthy mill-owners of England, who were not suffering would, some of
them, gladly have destroyed the Union and perpetuated slavery to get
cotton; the laborers--even while starving--brought pressure to bear upon
the English government to prevent further aid to the Confederacy,
heroically preferring starvation in the cause of freedom. Lincoln
referred to these actions on the part of England's laborers as "an
instance of Christian heroism which has not been surpassed in any age or
any country." And later those English laborers built a monument to
Lincoln on which they inscribed, "Lover of Humanity."

Everyone but Lincoln had lost patience with McClellan's overcautiousness
and when he failed to follow Lee's retreat from Antietam, Lincoln
removed him and placed in command Burnside, whose defeat at
Fredericksburg caused him to be replaced by Hooker, whose defeat at
Chancellorsville caused him to be replaced by Meade, who disappointed
the President in not following up the victory at Gettysburg.

July 4, 1863, Gettysburg and Vicksburg, decisive victories, coming
together should have ended the war. The Confederates could not win after
that, but still they fought on. On November 19, 1863, the National
Cemetery at the battlefield of Gettysburg was dedicated; and after
Edward Everett had delivered the formal oration of the occasion, Lincoln
delivered the most notable short speech that has ever been delivered in
the English language. A copy of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is given in
another volume of this series called "Speeches of Lincoln."

The tide has turned but much costly fighting is still necessary, first
in East Tennessee, and later in Virginia, and also Sherman must fight
his way into the very heart of the South and break its lines of
communication before the resolute Confederates will yield.

In the West, Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Pittsburgh Landing, and
Vicksburg were the victories that made Grant known as the most
successful Union general. The President advanced him to the rank of
Lieutenant General, brought him East, placed him in command of all the
armies, and gave him the task of beating Lee, taking Richmond and ending
the war.

In the fall of 1864, notwithstanding some opposition, Lincoln was
re-elected President. Again during this campaign, his attitude toward
his critics and his opponents attested still further his true greatness,
magnanimity and devotion to duty. Though he desired to be re-elected he
would make no effort toward that end, but instead gave his entire
energies to the work of saving the Union. Chase in the cabinet was an
open candidate against his chief. Lincoln proved that he had no
resentment by later appointing Chase as Chief Justice in the place of
the aged Roger B. Taney who died. When friends told the President that
he would surely be defeated for re-election if he approved another draft
of soldiers, he replied that the cause did not require his re-election
but did require more soldiers--and at once ordered a new draft for
500,000 additional men.

Lincoln breathed a most beautiful spirit of forgiveness in his Second
Inaugural Address which is printed in full in the volume of this series,
"Speeches of Lincoln."

In March, 1865, Grant sent a message saying that he was about to close
in on Lee and end the war, and invited Lincoln to visit Grant's
headquarters. And that is how it was that the President, being at
Grant's headquarters, could enter Richmond the day after the
Confederates retreated. So Lincoln, with his small son Tad and Admiral
Porter, escorted by a little group of sailors, simply, on foot, entered
the abandoned capital, not as one bringing the vengeance of a conqueror,
but the love of a liberator. One of the great moments of all history
was when an aged negro, baring his white wool, made reverent obeisance
to the President, and Lincoln in recognition took off his high hat.

He remained two days in Richmond discussing the plans for the
restoration of federal authority, counseling kindness and forgiveness.
"Let them down easy," he said to the military governor; "get them to
plowing and gathering in their own little crops." Thus he was preparing
to "bind up the nation's wounds," with a spiritual development so far
beyond his contemporaries that they could not even understand him.

Then he went back to Washington where he heard of Lee's surrender, and
two days later, to a large crowd at the White House, delivered a
carefully prepared speech outlining his policy of reconstruction, such
as he had already begun in Louisiana. Already he was being criticised
for being "too kind to the rebels."

That was the last speech he ever made.

Little Tad said, "Father has never been happy since we came to
Washington." His laughter had failed, he had aged rapidly, his shoulders
were bent, dreadful dreams had haunted him and on the night of the 13th
he had one which oppressed him. But the next day was the fourth
anniversary of the evacuation of Fort Sumpter,--Good Friday, April 14.
And at last he was happy, sharing with his people the joy that came with
the end of the war.

He took a drive with Mrs. Lincoln and they planned for the future--they
would save a little money and go back to Springfield and he would
practice law again. To his wife this unnatural joy was portentous--she
remembered that he had been like this just before little Willie died. In
the evening they went to Ford's Theatre. Stanton tried to dissuade them
because the secret service had heard rumors of assassination. Because
Stanton insisted on a guard Major Rathbone was along. At 9 o'clock the
party entered the President's box--the President was very happy--at
10:20 a shot was heard--Major Rathbone sprang to grapple with the
assassin and was slashed with a dagger. The assassin fell as he sprang
from the box to the stage, where he brandished his bloody dagger, yelled
with terrible theatricalism, "_sic semper tyrannis_," and stalking
lamely from the platform disappeared in the darkness and rode away. The
President was unconscious from the first, and as they bore him from the
theatre a lodger from a house across the street said "Take him up to my
room," where he lay unconscious until next morning when he ceased to
breathe; and Stanton at his bedside said, "Now he belongs to the Ages."

Someone had recognized the assassin as John Wilkes Booth, an actor, a
fanatic in the Southern cause. And in killing Lincoln he did his people
of the South the greatest possible harm.

The North had been decorated with celebration of victory; now it was
bowed and dazed with grief and rage. Those that had abused him and
maligned him and opposed him now came to understand him as in a new
light they saw him transfigured by his great sacrifices.

They reverently folded the body in the flag and carried it first to the
White House and then to the Capitol where it lay in state; and then they
began that long journey back to Springfield over the very route he had
come on his way to the Capital in 1861. Everywhere in cities and in
towns great crowds gathered, heedless of night or rain or storm, and
even as the train sped over the open country at night little groups of
farmers could be seen by the roadside in the dim light watching for the
train and waving their lanterns in a sad farewell.

Whatever anger and resentment the North may have felt, the weeping
thousands who looked upon the face of Lincoln as it was borne homeward
saw only forgiveness and peace.

But his beautiful dream of amnesty was not to be realized. Mutual
forgiveness and reconciliation were ideals too high for many of his
contemporaries at that time, and their spirit of revenge bore its
inevitable fruit of injustice and bitterness in the days of
reconstruction that followed. How different it might all have been had
Lincoln continued to live. How his great influence would have helped in
the solution of the nation's problems after the war. A besotted wretch
snuffed out the most important life on earth that day.

Misguided men of his time ridiculed him because they were unable to
comprehend his lofty ideals or see the practical wisdom of his great
purposes. They measured him by their own puny standards and in
condemning him only condemned themselves. His sad life, his tragic
death, his immortal glory are one with all the reformers, prophets and
saviors of the world. As war scenes receded, as men's prejudices cooled,
as the mighty issues were better understood, men came to see how truly
great he was. He finished successfully the most important and most
difficult task ever bequeathed to one mortal man in all history.

       *       *       *       *       *



Other Titles in Pocket Series


Drama

   46 Salome. Oscar Wilde.
   50 Pillars of Society. Ibsen.
  131 Redemption. Tolstoi.
   99 Tartuffe. Moliere.
   54 Importance of Being Earnest. Oscar Wilde.
   81 Pelleas and Melisande. Maeterlinck.
    8 Lady Windermere's Fan. Oscar Wilde.
  226 Prof. Bernhardi. Schnitzler.


Fiction

    6 De Maupassant's Stories.
   15 Balzac's Stories.
  178 One of Cleopatra's Nights. Gautier.
   58 Boccaccio's Stories.
   45 Tolstoi's Stories.
   12 Poe's Tales.
  145 Great Ghost Stories.
   21 Carmen. Merimee.
   38 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
   27 Last Days of a Condemned Man. Hugo.
  151 Man Who Would Be King. Kipling.
   47 He Renounced the Faith. Jack London.
   41 Christmas Carol.
   57 Rip Van Winkle.
  100 Red Laugh. Andreyev.
  148 Strength of the Strong. London.
  105 Seven That Were Hanged. Andreyev.
  102 Sherlock Holmes Tales.
  161 Country of the Blind. H. G. Wells.
   85 Attack on the Mill. Zela.
  156 Andersen's Fairy Tales.
  158 Alice in Wonderland.
   37 Dream of John Bull.
   40 House and the Brain.
   12 Color of Life. E. Haldeman-Julius.
  198 Majesty of Justice. Anatole France.
  215 The Miraculous Revenge. Bernard Shaw.
   24 The Kiss and Other Stories. Chekhov.
  219 The Human Tragedy. Anatole France.
  196 The Marquise. Sand.
  230 The Fleece of Gold. Theophile Gautier.
  232 Three Strangers. Hardy.
  239 Twenty-Six Men and a Girl. Maxium Gorki.
   29 Dreams. Schreiner.


History, Biography

  126 History of Rome.
  128 Caesar: Who He Was.
  185 History of Printing.
  175 Science of History. Froude.
   52 Voltaire. Victor Hugo.
  125 War Speeches of Woodrow Wilson.
  142 Bismarck and the German Empire.
   51 Bruno: His Life and Martyrdom.
  147 Cromwell and His Day.
  236 State and Heart Affairs of Henry VIII.
   50 Paine's Common Sense.
   88 Vindication of Paine. Ingersoll.
   33 Smasher of Shams.
  163 Sex Life in Greece and Rome.
  214 Speeches of Lincoln.
  144 Was Poe Immoral? Whitman.
  104 Battle of Waterloo. Victor Hugo.
  159 Lincoln and the Working Class.
  223 Essay on Swinburne. Quiller-Couch.
  229 Diderot. Ellis.
  227 Keats. The Man. His Work and His Friends.
  201 Satan and the Saints. H. M. Tichenor.
   67 Church History. Tichenor.
  139 Life of Dante.


Humor

   18 Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow. Jerome.
   20 Let's Laugh. Nasby.
  166 English as She Is Spoke. Mark Twain.
  205 Artemus Ward. His Book.
  187 Whistler's Humor.
  216 Wit of Heinrich Heine. Geo. Eliot.
  231 8 Humorous Sketches. Mark Twain.


Literature

   97 Love Letters of King Henry VIII.
   36 Soul of Man Under Socialism. O. Wilde.
   28 Toleration. Voltaire.
   89 Love Letters of Men and Women of Genius.
   87 Love. Montaigne.
   48 Bacon's Essays.
   60 Emerson's Essays.
   84 Love Letters of a Nun.
   26 On Going to Church. Shaw.
   61 Tolstoi's Essays.
  176 Four Essays. Ellis.
  160 Shakespeare. Ingersoll.
  186 How I Write "The Raven." Poe.
   75 Choice of Books. Carlyle.
   76 Prince of Peace. Bryan.
   86 On Reading. Brandes.
   95 Confessions of An Opium Eater.
  188 How Voltaire Fooled Priest and King.
    3 18 Essays. Voltaire.
  213 Lincoln. Ingersoll.
  183 Realism in Art and Literature. Darrow.
  177 Subjection of Women. John Stuart Mill.
   17 On Walking. Thoreau.
   70 Lamb's Essays.
  135 Socialism for Millionaires. G. B. Shaw.
  235 Essays. G. K. Chesterton.
    7 A Liberal Education. Thomas Huxley.
  233 Thoughts on Literature and Art. Goethe.
  225 Condescension in Foreigners. J. R. Lowell.
  221 Women, and Other Essays. Maeterlinck.
  218 Essays. Jean Jaures.
   10 Shelley. F. Thompson.


Maxims and Epigrams

   56 Wisdom of Ingersoll.
  106 Aphorisms. Geo. Sand.
  168 Epigrams. O. Wilde.
   59 Epigrams of Wit.
   35 Maxims. Rochefoucauld.
  154 Epigrams of Ibsen.
  197 Witticisms. De Sevigne.
  180 Epigrams. G. B. Shaw.
  155 Maxims. Napoleon.
  113 Proverbs of England.
  114 Proverbs of France.
  115 Proverbs of Japan.
  116 Proverbs of China.
  117 Proverbs of Italy.
  118 Proverbs of Russia.
  119 Proverbs of Ireland.
  120 Proverbs of Spain.
  121 Proverbs of Arabia.
  181 Epigrams. Thoreau.
  228 Aphorisms. Huxley.


Philosophy, Religion

   62 Schopenhauer's Essays.
   94 Trial and Death of Socrates.
   65 Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.
   44 Aesop's Fables.
  165 Discovery of the Future. H. G. Wells.
   96 Dialogues of Plato.
  103 Pocket Theology. Voltaire.
  132 Foundations of Religion.
  138 Studies in Pessimism. Schopenhauer.
  211 Idea of God in Nature. John Stuart Mill.
  212 Life and Character. Goethe.
  200 Ignorant Philosopher. Voltaire.
  101 Thoughts of Pascal.
  207 Olympian Gods. H. M. Tichenor.
  210 The Stoic Philosophy. Prof. Gilbert Murray.
  220 Essays on New Testament. Blatchford.
  224 God: Known and Unknown. Butler.
   19 Nietzsche. Who He Was and What He Stood For.
  204 Sun Worship and Later Beliefs. Tichenor.
  184 Primitive Beliefs. H. M. Tichenor.


Poetry

    1 Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
   73 Whitman's Poems.
    2 Wilde's Reading Jail.
   32 Poe's Poems.
  164 Michael Angelo's Sonnets
   71 Poems of Evolution.
  146 Snow-Bound, Pied Piper.
    9 Great English Poems.
   79 Enoch Arden. Tennyson.
   68 Shakespeare's Sonnets.
  173 Vision of Sir Launfal.
  222 The Vampire and Other Poems. Kipling.
  237 Prose Poems. Baudelaire.


Science

  190 Psycho-Analysis--The Key to Human Behavior. Fielding.
   49 Three Lectures on Evolution. Haeckel.
   42 From Monkey to Man.
  288 Reflections on Modern Science. Huxley.
  202 Survival of the Fittest. H. M. Tichenor.
  191 Evolution vs. Religion. Balmforth.
  133 Electricity Explained.
   92 Hypnotism Made Plain.
   53 Insects and Men: Instinct and Reason Darrow.
  189 Eugenics. Ellis.
  107 How to Strengthen Mind and Memory.
  108 How to Develop a Healthy Mind.
  109 How to Develop a Strong Will.
  110 How to Develop a Magnetic Personality.
  111 How to Attract Friends.
  112 How to Be a Leader of Others.
  140 Biology and Spiritual Philosophy. Tichenor.


Series of Debates

   11 Debate on Religion. John H. Holmes and George Bowne.
   39 Did Jesus Ever Live?
  130 Controversy on Christianity. Ingersoll and Gladstone.
   43 Marriage and Divorce. Horace Greeley and Robert Owen.
  208 Debate on Birth Control. Mrs. Sanger and Winter Russell.
  121 Rome or Reason. Ingersoll and Manning.
  122 Spiritualism. Conan Doyle and McCabe.
  171 Has Life Meaning?
  206 Capitalism vs. Socialism. Seligman and Nearing.
   13 Is Free Will a Fact or a Fallacy?
  234 McNeal-Sinclair Debate on Socialism.


Miscellaneous

  192 Book of Synonyms.
   25 Rhyming Dictionary.
   78 How to Be an Orator.
   82 Common Faults in Writing English.
  127 What Expectant Mothers Should Know.
   81 Care of the Baby.
  136 Child Training.
  137 Home Nursing.
   14 What Every Girl Should Know. Mrs. Sanger.
   34 Case for Birth Control.
   91 Manhood: Facts of Life Presented to Men.
   83 Marriage Past, Present and Future. Besant.
   74 On Threshold of Sex.
   98 How to Love.
  172 Evolution of Love. Key.
  203 Rights of Women. Ellis.
  209 Aspects of Birth Control. Medical, Moral, Sociological.
  143 Pope Leo on Socialism.
  152 Foundations of Labor Movement. Phillips.
   30 What Life Means to Me. Jack London.
   93 How to Live 100 Years.
  167 Plutarch on Health.





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