| President Visits City Point—Lee’s Failure—Grant’s Movement—Abraham Lincoln in Richmond—Lee’s Surrender—President’s Impromptu Speech—Speech on Reconstruction—Proclamation Closing Certain Ports—Proclamation Relative to Maritime Rights—Supplementary Proclamation—Orders from the War Department—The Traitor President |
362 |
| CHAPTER XXV. |
| THE LAST ACT. |
| Interview with Mr. Colfax—Cabinet Meeting—Incident—Evening Conversation—Possibility of Assassination—Leaves for the Theatre—In the Theatre—Precautions for the Murder—The Pistol Shot—Escape of the Assassin—Death of the President—Pledges Redeemed—Situation of the Country—Effect of the Murder—Obsequies at Washington—Borne Home—Grief of the People—At Rest |
374 |
| CHAPTER XXVI. |
| THE MAN. |
| Reasons for His Re-election—What was Accomplished—Leaning on the People—State Papers—His Tenacity of Purpose—Washington and Lincoln—As a Man—Favorite Poem—Autobiography—His Modesty—A Christian—Conclusion |
382 |
| APPENDIX. |
| Mr. Lincoln’s Speeches in Congress and Elsewhere, Proclamations, Letters, etc., not included in the Body of the Work. |
| Speech on the Mexican War, (In Congress, Jan. 12, 1848) |
391 |
| Speech on Internal Improvements, (In Congress, June 20, 1848) |
403 |
| Speech on the Presidency and General Politics, (In Congress, July 27, 1848) |
417 |
| Speech in Reply to Mr. Douglas, on Kansas, the Dred Scott Decision, and the Utah Question, (At Springfield, June 26, 1857) |
431 |
| Speech in Reply to Senator Douglas, (At Chicago, July 10, 1858) |
442 |
| Opening Passages of his Speech at Freeport |
459 |
| Letter to Gen. McClellan |
464 |
| Letter to Gen. Schofield Relative to the Removal of Gen. Curtis |
466 |
| Three Hundred Thousand Men Called For |
466 |
| Rev. Dr. McPheeters—President’s Reply to an Appeal for Interference |
468 |
| An Election Ordered in the State of Arkansas |
470 |
| Letter to William Fishback on the Election in Arkansas |
471 |
| Call for Five Hundred Thousand Men |
471 |
| Letter to Mrs. Gurney |
473 |
| The Tennessee Test Oath |
474 |
CHAPTER I.
BOYHOOD AND EARLY MANHOOD.
Preliminary—Birth of Abraham Lincoln—Removal from Kentucky—At Work—Self Education—Personal Characteristics—Another Removal—Trip to New Orleans—Becomes Clerk—Black Hawk War—Engages in Politics—Successive Elections to the Legislature—Anti-Slavery Protest—Commences Practice as a Lawyer—Traits of Character—Marriage—Return to Politics—Election to Congress.
The leading incidents in the early life of the men who have most decidedly influenced the destinies of our republic, present a striking similarity. The details, indeed, differ; but the story, in outline, is the same—“the short and simple annals of the poor.”
Of obscure parentage—accustomed to toil from their tender years—with few facilities for the education of the school—the most struggled on, independent, self-reliant, till by their own right hands they had hewed their way to the positions for which their individual talents and peculiarities stamped them as best fitted. Children of nature, rather than
