Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/686

 662 LINCOLN [PRESIDENT. a view of securing peace to the people of our common country.&quot; Upon the basis of this latter proposition three Confederate commissioners finally came to Hampton Koads, where President Lincoln and Secretary Seward met them, and on February 3, 1865, an informal conference of four hours duration was held. Private reports of the interview agree substantially in the statement that the Confederates proposed a cessation of the civil war, and post ponement of its issues for future adjustment, while for the present the belligerents should unite in a campaign to expel the French from Mexico, and to enforce the Monroe doctrine. President Lincoln, however, declined the ensnaring alliance, and adhered to the instructions he had given Seward before deciding to personally accompany him. These formulated three indispensable conditions to adjustment : first, the restoration of the national authority throughout all the States ; second, no receding by the executive of the United States on the skvery question ; third, no cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war, and the disbanding of all forces hostile to the Government. These terms the commissioners were not authorized to accept, and the interview ended without result. As Lincoln s first presidential term of four years neared its end, the Democratic party gathered itself for a supremo effort to regain the ascendency lost in 1860. The slow progress of the war, the severe sacrifice of life in campaign and battle, the enormous accumulation of public debt, arbitrary arrests and suspension of habeas corpus, the rigour of the draft, and the proclamation of military emancipation furnished ample subjects of bitter and vindictive campaign oratory. A partisan coterie which surrounded M Clellan loudly charged the failure of his Richmond campaign to official interference in his plans. Vallandigham had re turned to his home in defiance of his banishment beyond military lines, and was leniently suffered to remain. The aggressive spirit of the party, however, pushed it to a fatal extreme. The Democratic National Convention adopted (August 29, 1864) a resolution declaring the war a failure, and demanding a cessation of hostilities ; it nominated M Clellan for president, and instead of adjourning sine die as usual, remained organized, and subject to be convened at any time and place by the executive national committee. This threatening attitude, in conjunction with alarming in dications of a conspiracy to resist the draft, had the effect to thoroughly consolidate the war party, which had on June 8 unanimously renominated Lincoln. At the election held November 8, 1864, Lincoln received 2,216,076 of the popular votes, and M Clellan but 1,808,725 ; while of the presidential electors 212 voted for Lincoln and 21 for M Clellan. Lincoln s second term of office began March 4, 1865. While this political contest was going on the civil war was being brought to a decisive close. Grant, at the head of the army of the Potomac, followed Lee from before Washington to Richmond and Petersburg, and held him in siege to within a few days of final surrender. Sherman, commanding the bulk of the Union forces in the Mississippi valley, swept in a victorious march through the heart of the confederacy to Savannah on the coast, and thence northward to North Carolina. Lee evacuated Richmond April 2, and was overtaken by Grant and compelled to surrender his entire army April 9, 1865. Sherman pushed Johnston to a surrender April 26. This ended the war, the submission of scattering detachments following soon after. _ Lincoln being at the time on a visit to the army, entered Richmond the day after its surrender. Returning to Washington, he made his last public address on the evening of April 11, devoted mainly to the question of reconstruct ing loyal governments in the conquered States. On the evening of April 14 he attended Ford s theatre in Washington. While seated with his family and friends absorbed in the play, John Wilkes Booth, an actor, who with others had prepared a plot to assassinate the several heads of government, went into the little corridor leading to the upper stage-box, and secured it against ingress by a wooden bar. Then stealthily entering the box, he discharged a pistol at the head of the president from behind, the ball penetrating the brain. Brandishing a huge knife, with which he wounded Colonel Rathbone who attempted to hold him, the assassin rushed through the stage-box to the front and leaped down upon the stage, escaping behind the scenes and from the rear of the building, but was pursued, and twelve days afterwards shot in a barn where he had concealed himself. The wounded president was borne to a house across the street, where he breathed his last at 7 A.M., April 15, 1865. In 1842 he had married Mary Todd, also of Kentucky, who bore him four children. Only one son, Robert T; Lincoln, survives, who is at this date (1882) secretary of war of the United States. President Lincoln was of unusual stature, 6 feet 4 inches, and of spare but muscular build ; he had been in youth remarkably strong and skilful in the athletic games of the frontier, where, how ever, his popularity and recognized impartiality oftener made him an umpire than a champion. He had regular and prepossessing features, dark complexion, broad high forehead, prominent cheek bones, grey deep-set eyes, and bushy black hair, turning to grey at the time of his death. Abstemious in his habits, he possessed great physical endurance. He was almost as tender-hearted as a woman. &quot; I have not willingly planted a thorn in any man s bosom,&quot; he was able to say. His patience was inexhaustible. He had naturally a most cheerful and sunny temper, was highly social and sympathetic, loved pleasant conversation, wit, anecdote, and laughter. Beneath this, however, ran an undercurrent of sadness ; he was occasionally subject to hours of deep silence and introspec tion that approached a condition of trance. In manner he was simple, direct, void of the least affectation, and entirely free from awkwardness, oddity, or eccentricity. His mental qualities were a quick analytic perception, strong logical powers, a tenacious memory, a liberal estimate and tolerance of the opinions of others, ready intuition of human nature ; and perhaps his most valuable faculty was rare ability to divest himself of all feeling or passion in weighing motives of persons or problems of state. His speech and diction were plain, terse, forcible. Relating anecdotes with appre ciative humour and fascinating dramatic skill, he used them freely and effectively in conversation and argument. He loved manliness, truth, and justice. He despised all trickery and selfish greed. In arguments at the bar he was so fair to his opponent that he fre quently appeared to concede away his client s case. He was ever ready to take blame on himself and bestow praise on others. &quot; I claim not to have controlled events,&quot; he said, &quot; but confess plainly that events hare controlled me.&quot; The Declaration of Independence was his political chart and inspiration. He acknowledged a univer sal equality of human rights. &quot;Certainly the negro is not our equal in colour,&quot; he said, &quot;perhaps not in many other respects; still, in the right to put into his mouth the bread that his own hands have earned, he is the equal of every other man white or black.&quot; He had unchanging faith in self-government. &quot;The people,&quot; he said, &quot;are the rightful masters of both congresses and courts, not to overthrow the constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the constitution.&quot; Yielding and accommodating in non-essentials, he was inflexibly firm in a principle or position deliberately taken. &quot;Let us have faith that right makes might,&quot; he said, &quot; and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it.&quot; The emancipation proclamation once issued, he reiterated his purpose never to retract or modify it. &quot;There have been men base enough,&quot; he said, &quot; to propose to me to return to slavery our black warriors of Port Hudson and Olustee, and thus win the respect of the masters they fought. Should I do so, I should deserve to be damned in time and eternity. Come what will, I will keep my faith with friend and foe.&quot; Benevolence and forgiveness were the very basis of his character ; his world-wide humanity is aptly embodied in a phrase of his second inaugural: &quot; With malice toward none, with charity for all.&quot; His nature was deeply religious, but he belonged to no denomination ; he had faith in the eternal justice and boundless mercy of Providence, and made the golden rule of Christ his practical creed. History must accord him a rare sagacity in guiding a great people through the perils of a mighty revolution, an admirable singleness of aim, a skilful discernment and courageous seizure of the golden moment to free