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[264]
an honorable peace attainable.
Mr. Lincoln knew it was not,--that any peace at that time would be only disunion.
Speaking of it, he said: “I have faith in the people.
They will not consent to disunion.
The danger is, in their being misled.
Let them know the truth, and the country is safe.”
He looked haggard and careworn; and further on in the interview I remarked on his appearance, “You are wearing yourself out with work.”
“I can't work less,” he answered; “but it isn't that,work never troubled me. Things look badly, and I can't avoid anxiety.
Personally, I care nothing about a reelection; but if our divisions defeat us, I fear for the country.”
When I suggested that right must eventually triumph, that I had never despaired of the result, he said:
“Neither have I, but I may never live to see it. I feel a presentiment that I shall not outlast the Rebellion.
When it is over, my work will be done.”
“The freedmen,” once said the President to the Secretary of War, “are the ‘wards’ of the nation.”
“Yes,” replied Stanton, “wards in chancery.”
A few days before the President's death, Secretary Stanton tendered his resignation of the War Department.
He accompanied the act with a heartfelt tribute to Mr. Lincoln's constant friendship and faithful devotion to the country; saying, also, that he as Secretary had accepted the position to
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