Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/764

726 the remains of the president lay in state in Balti- more, Harrisburgh, Philadelphia, New York, Al- bany, Buffalo, Cleveland, and Chicago, being re- ceived everywhere with extraordinary demonstra- tions of respect and sorrow. The joy over the return of peace was for a fortnight eclipsed by the universal grief for the dead leader. He was bur- ied, amid *he mourning of the whole nation, at Oak Ridge, near Springfield, on 4 May, and there on 15 Oct., 1874, an imposing monument — the work of the sculptor Larkin Gh Mead — was dedicated to his memory. The monument is of white marble, with a portrait-statue of Lincoln in bronze, and four bronze groups at the corners, representing the infantry, cavalry, and artillery arms of the service and the navy. (See accompanying illustration.)

The death of President Lincoln, in the moment of the great national victory that he had done more than any other to gain, caused a movement of sympathy throughout the world. The expres- sions of grief and condolence that were sent to the government at Washington, from national, provincial, and municipal bodies all over the globe, were afterward published by the state department in a quarto volume of nearly a thousand pages, called "The Tribute of the Nations to Abraham Lincoln." After the lapse of twenty years, the high estimate of him that the world appears in- stinctively to have formed at the moment of his death seems to have been increased rather than diminished, as his participation in the great events of his time has been more thoroughly studied and understood. His goodness of heart, his abound- ing charity, his quick wit and overflowing humor, which made him the hero of many true stories and a thousand legends, are not less valued in them- selves ; but they are cast in the shade by the evi- dences that continually appear of his extraordinary qualities of mind and of character. His powerful grasp of details, his analytic capacity, his unerring logic, his perception of human nature, would have made him unusual in any age of the world, while the quality that, in the opinion of many, made him the specially fitted agent of Providence in the salvation of the country, his absolute freedom from prejudice or passion in weighing the motives of his contemporaries and the deepest problems of state gives him pre-eminence even among the illus- trious men that have preceded and followed him in his great office. Simple and modest as he was in his demeanor, he was one of the most self- respecting of rulers. Although his kindness of heart was proverbial, although he was always glad to please and unwilling to offend, few presidents have been more sensible of the dignity of their office, and more prompt to maintain it against en- croachments. He was at all times unquestionably the head of the government, and, though not in- clined to interfere with the routine business of the departments, he tolerated no insubordination in important matters. At one time, being con- scious that there was an effort inside of his gov- ernment to force the resignation of one of its members, he read in open cabinet a severe repri- mand of what was going on, mentioning no names, and ordering peremptorily that no questions should be asked, and no allusions be made to the inci- dent then or thereafter. He did not except his most trusted friends or his most powerful generals from this strict subordination. When Mr. Seward went before him to meet the Confederate envoys at Hampton Roads, Mr. Lincoln gave him this written injunction : " You will not assume to defi- nitely consummate anything " ; and, on 3 March, 1865, when Gen. Grant was about to set out on his campaign of final victory, the secretary of war gave him, by the president's order, this imperative instruction : '• The president directs me to say to you that he wishes you to have no conference with Gen. Lee, unless it be for the capitulation of Gen. Lee's army, or on some other minor and purely military matter. He instructs me to say that you are not to decide, discuss, or to confer upon any political question. Such questions the president holds in his own hands, and will submit them to no military conferences or conventions. Mean- while, you are to press to the utmost your military advantages." When he refused to comply with the desire of the more radical Republicans in con- gress to take Draconian measures of retaliation against the Confederates for their treatment of black soldiers, he was accused by them of weak- ness and languor. They never seemed to perceive that to withstand an angry congress in Washing- ton required more vigor of character than to launch a threatening decree against the Confeder- ate government in Richmond. Mr. Lincoln was as unusual in personal appearance as in character. His stature was almost gigantic, six feet and four inches ; he was muscular but spare of frame, weigh- ing about 180 pounds. His hair was strong and luxuriant in growth, and stood out straight from his head ; it began to be touched with gray in his last years. His eyes, a grayish brown, were deeply set, and were filled, in repose, with an expression of profound melancholy, which easily changed to one of uproarious mirth at the provocation of a humorous anecdote, told by himself or another. His nose was long and slightly curved, his mouth large and singularly mobile. Up to the time of his election he was clean-shaven, but during his presidency the fine outline of his face was marred by a thin and straggling beard. His demeanor was, in general, extremely simple and careless, but he was not without a native dignity that always protected him from anything like presumption or impertinence.

Mr. Lincoln married, on 4 Nov., 1842, Miss Mary Todd, daughter of Robert S. Todd, of Kentucky. There were born of this marriage four sons. One, Edward Baker, died in infancy ; another, William Wallace, died at the age of twelve, during the presidency of Mr. Lincoln ; and still another, Thomas, at the age of eighteen, several years after his father's death. The only one that grew to ma- turity was his eldest son, Robert. The house in which Mr. Lincoln lived when he was elected presi- dent, in Springfield, 111., was conveyed to the state of Illinois in 1887 by his son, and a collection of memorials of him is to be preserved there perpetu- ally. (See illustration on page 717.)

There were few portraits of Mr. Lincoln painted