LINCOLN. 285 LINCOLN. coin's nature. The only direct request made was for 400,000 men and $400,000,000. The request was granted with additions. On .July 1.5th a Democratic member (McClernand of llHnois) of- fered a resolution pledging the House to vote any nnount of money and any number of men neces- ly to put down the rebellion and restore the authority of the Government. There were only five opposing votes in a House of nearly 300 members. On July 21st the Union forces were badly de- feated at Bull Run, and driven in a panic back upon Washington. For a moment this flight had the eftect of disheartening the President. Gen- eral Scott, who was commander-in-chief when the war broke out, resigned at the end of Octo- ber, 1861, and Gen. George B. McClellan took his place. McClellan was a skillful tactician and organizer, but slow to strike. Lincoln realized the necessity for acting, but he had not yet gained the knowledge of war that he later ac- quired. His appointment of Edwin M. Stanton, a man not pleasing to him personally, as Secre- tary of War (.January 14, 18G2), was "an evidence of gieat statesmanship, and Lincoln had trials that would have broken a weaker man. !McClcl- lan. after waiting and complaining unnecessarily, finally began a campaign in which he was thoroughly baflied by General I^ee. In .July Hal- leck was appointed general-in-chief of the armies of the United States. At the end of Augu.st the principal Federal force, under the command of Pope, was defeated in the second battle of Bull Run. On September 16th-17th McClellan met l/ce in the bloody battle of Antietam in Mary- land. This engagement was hardly decisive, but as the Confederates were forced to give up their invasion, Lincoln chose this moment to issue his proclamation, September 22, 18C2. declaring that he would on .January 1. 186.3. emancipate the slaves of all the States then or thereafter in re- bellion. This proclamation was a military meas- ure justified as depriving the South to some ex- tent of an advantage it enjoyed. Politically it was of the utmost importance, since it was the means of winning from the anti-slavery element throughout the North a more hearty support than had previously been accorded, and added greatly to the influence of the National Govern- ment abroad, where economic hardships threat- ened to conceal the fact that the war was being fought largely to vindicate a great moral prin- ciple. The support it received finally showed I^incoln to be right. Before this, though desiring emancipation, he had labored to persuade the border States to take the step of their own ac- cord, in return for compensation, but he had been unsuccessful. Two years afterwards Lincoln said of the proclamation: "As affairs have turned it is the central act of my administration, and the great event of the nineteenth century." McClel- lan failed to use his great force to follow I.ee after Antietam ; Burnside took command and was defeated at Fredericksburg: Hooker was appoint- ed and suffered the disaster of Chancellorsville. Then the tide began to turn, and on .July 4th, 186.3, General Grant captured Vicksburg. At the same time ileade at Gettysburg beat ofl' the sec- ond invasion of Lee and won a decisive victory. On November 19, 1863. Lincoln m.ide his immor- tal speech on the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg. Meade having failed to follow up his victory over Lee, Lincoln, in March, 1864, complying with the recommendation of Congress, appointed Grant connnander-in-chief. Ihe South was nearly worn out and Lee's supe- rior generalship could not prevail against Grant's determination and unlimited resources. On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered at Appomattox. On November 8, 1864, Lincoln was reelected over General McClellan by a vote of 212 to 21: Andrew .Johnson was elected Vice-President.
hen Lee's surrender ended the war Lincoln was
bu.sy with plans for reconstruction, but on April 14, 186.5, before he could do anything toward uti- lizing his wisdom in reorganization, he was shot in his box -at Ford's Theatre by .John Wilkes Booth, a dissipated and fanatical actor. The ball entered Lincoln's brain and he never regained consciousness. At 7 o'clock on the following morning he was dead. The loss to the country by this death was in- calculable, and the assassin" injured most of all the people he would have served. The problem of bringing the two sections again into a union which should be more than one of force was as diflieult as that of managing the war. To this problem Lincoln would have brought not only his experience, but generosity, utter lack of vin- dictiveness, incomparable tact, a tried strength which prevented vacillation. Lincoln's most marked characteristic was the accuracy with which he understood the American people. He was wholly honest: he thought fairly and never as a bigoted partisan. As a lawyer he was weak unless convinced of inherent right in his case, and when he was convinced he relied for victory on a skill in presenting facts which often set the other side in a light clearer than their attorneys could throw on their case. He con- quered by the power of truth. This love for truth, his infinite patience, and his hard thinking seem to have guided him unerringly in every great problem he had to solve. He who had giown up in a drifting, almost illiterate, shiftless society, who had no education save that which he had been able to pick up in hours not devoted to bread-getting, who had been for years a mere country lawyer, with a narrow horizon, directed a foreign policy of dignity, strength, and honesty. Lincoln came of rough, shiftless, poverty-stricken stock, but through inexplicable gifts he wielded in a democracy and with the full consent of the people a power as great as that of the Czar. It was altogether fitting that a man of such charity should have the honor of doing most to free his country of slavery. This was his great achieve- ment, but it must not he forgotten that events so great as the inception of the P.acific railroads and of the present national banking system belong to his administration. Some of the measures taken to repress Northern sympathizers with the South brought upon him harsh criticism, but these will probably be condoned by history, or at most condemned very tenderly. For the memory of the great martyr President is year by year held in more honor throughout the entire Union for which he gave his life. Consult: /yiic« bv Holland (Springfield. Mass., 186.5): Lamon (Boston. 1872): Leiand (New York, 1870) : Arnold (Chicago. lSS.5t : by Hern- don and ^eik (3 vols., ib.. 18S9) : by Nicolay and Hay (10 vols.. New York. ISOO) : and an abridgment by Nicolay in 1002: KvminiscenceK by distinguished men of his time (New York, 1885) ; Morse in the "American Statesmen Se-
