Sixteenth
President of the
United States, was born in
Hardin county, Ky., Feb. 12, 1809.
His ancestors were Quakers in
Berks county, Pa. His parents, born in
Virginia, emigrated to
Kentucky, and in 1816 went to
Indiana.
Having had about one year's schooling in the aggregate, he went as a hired hand on a flat-boat to New Orleans when he was nineteen years of age. He made himself so useful to his employer that he gave him charge as clerk of a store and mill at
New Salem, Ill. He commanded a company in the
Black Hawk War. Appointed postmaster at
Salem, he began to study law, was admitted to practice in 1836, and began his career as a lawyer at
Springfield.
He rose rapidly in his profession, became a leader of the Whig party in
Illinois, and was a popular though homely speaker at political
meetings.
He was elected to Congress in 1847, and was there distinguished for his outspoken anti-slavery views.
In 1858 he was a candidate for
United States Senator.
His opponent,
Judge Douglas, won the prize from the legislature, though
Mr. Lincoln received 4,000 more votes of the people than his opponent.
In 1860 and 1864 he was elected
President of the
United States.
Ordinances of secession and the beginning of civil war followed his first election.
He conducted the affairs of the nation with great wisdom through the four years of the
Civil War, and just as it closed was assassinated at the national capital, dying April 15, 1865.
His journey to the capital.
The
President-elect left his home in
Springfield, Ill. Feb. 11, 1861, for
Washington, D. C. accompanied by a few personal and political friends.
To the crowd at the railway
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station, evidently impressed with the solemn responsibility laid on him, he said: “A duty devolves on me which is, perhaps, greater than that which has devolved upon any man since the days of
Washington.
He never could 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 divine aid 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, but with which success is certain.”
The journey then undertaken was performed at about the same time that
Jefferson Davis, the elected
President of the Southern Confederacy, was on his way from his home to the capital of the
Confederacy.
Lincoln made a long journey of hundreds of miles through
Illinois,
Indiana,
Ohio, New York,
New Jersey,
Pennsylvania,
Delaware, and
Maryland, everywhere greeted with demonstrations of profound respect, and speaking to the crowds who came out to see him words full of cheerfulness, kindness, forbearance, and tenderness.
Common prudence counselled him to say little or nothing on the grave affairs of state, but occasionally words would drop from his lips that clearly indicated his views and intentions.
He often alluded to the condition of the country.
“It is my intention,” he said at
Pittsburg, “to give this subject all the consideration I possibly can before specially deciding in regard to it, so that when I do speak I may be as nearly right as possible.
I hope I may say nothing in opposition to the spirit of the
Constitution, contrary to the integrity of the
Union, or which will prove inimical to the liberties of the people or the peace of the whole country.”
At the
Astor House, in New York, he said to a multitude who greeted him: “When the time does come for me to speak, I shall then take the ground that I think is right—right for the
North, for the
South, for the
East, for the
West, and for the whole country.”
Mr. Lincoln was received by the municipal authorities of New York City at the City Hall, where
Mayor Wood, who had recently set forth the advantages that the commercial mart would derive from its secession from all government, admonished the
President-elect that it was his duty “to so conduct public affairs as to preserve the
Union.”
Mr. Lincoln arrived in
Philadelphia Feb. 21, where he was informed of a plan in
Baltimore to assassinate him, on his way through that city
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Spot where the cabin stood in which Lincoln was born. |
to
Washington.
On the following morning (
Washington's birthday) he hoisted the national flag, with his own hands, over the old State-house, in the presence of a vast multitude of citizens.
In his speech on that occasion he referred to the
Declaration of Independence, adopted and signed in that building, and said that it was the sentiment of perfect freedom to all contained in that document which had kept the
Union together so long, and promised the same blessing, in due time, to all men. “If this country,” he said, “cannot be saved by this principle, I was about to say I would rather be assas-
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sinated on this spot than surrender it. I have said nothing but what I am willing to live by, and, if it be the pleasure of Almighty God, die by.”
His friends believed his life would be in danger if he carried out the prescribed plan of his journey to visit
Harrisburg, and thence direct through
Baltimore to
Washington.
But he persisted in keeping his engagement, and went on to
Harrisburg.
Meanwhile revelations had been made that convinced his friends that he would be assassinated if the whole plan should be carried out, and he was persuaded to go back to
Philadelphia that night, and so on to
Washington, instead of waiting until the next day. He passed through
Baltimore unobserved, and arrived in
Washington early on the morning of Feb. 26.
The passage through Baltimore.
His movements at that time gave currency to many absurd and untruthful stories.
Mr. Lincoln gave, orally, to the late
Benson J. Lossing, early in December, substantially the following narrative of the affair: “I arrived at
Philadelphia on the 21st.
I agreed to stop overnight, and on the following morning hoist the flag over Independence Hall.
In the evening there was a great crowd where I received my friends, at the
Continental Hotel.
Mr. Judd, a warm personal friend from
Chicago, sent for me to come to his room.
I went, and found there
Mr. Pinkerton, a skilful police detective, also from
Chicago, who had been employed for some days in
Baltimore watching or searching for suspicious persons there.
Pinkerton informed me that a plan had been laid for my assassination, the exact time when I expected to go through
Baltimore being publicly known.
He was well informed as to the plan, but did not know that the conspirators would have pluck enough to execute it. He urged me to go right through with him to
Washington that night.
I didn't like that.
I had made engagements to visit
Harrisburg and go from there to
Baltimore, and I resolved to do so. I
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could not believe that there was a plot to murder me. I made arrangements, however, with
Mr. Judd for my return to
Philadelphia the next night, if I should be convinced that there was danger in going through
Baltimore.
I told him that if I should meet at
Harrisburg, as I had at other places, a delegation to go with me to the next place (then
Baltimore), I should feel safe and go on. When I was making my way back to my room, through crowds of people, I met
Frederick Seward.
We went together to my room, when he told me that he had been sent, at the instance of his father and
