Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/374

 866 Southern Historical Society Papers.

graph, and to give some further evidence of the estimate of Lincoln entertained by his contemporaries. Such light is needed, for the paean of praise that began with his death has grown to such extrava- gance that one of his eulogists, on his birth-day last week, taught that he is " first of all that have walked the earth after The Nazarine, ' ' and another asked us to give up aspirations for a Heaven where Lin- coln's presence is not assured. Every author quoted or referred to in this letter is an ardently eulogistic biographer and a partisan of the North against the South.

Colonel A. K. McClure's Lincoln and Men of the War Time, says (page 225, et seq.):

" Greeley was in closer touch with the active, loyal sense of the people than even the President himself," and "Mr. Greeley's Tri- bune was the most widely read Republican journal in the country, and it was unquestionably the most potent in modelling Republican sentiment. * * * It reached the intelligent masses of the people in every State in the Union, and Greeley was not in accord with Lin- coln" *' * * Greeley "was [page 289, et seq.~\ a perpetual thorn in Lincoln's side, * * * and almost constantly criticised him boldly and often bitterly." "Greeley * * * labored [page 296] most faithfully to accomplish Lincoln's overthrow " in his great struggle for re-election in 1864. See also pages 282 to 292, et seq. See Morse's Lincoln, Vol. I, page 193. None will deny that Greeley ardently hated slavery and loved the Union, and was unsurpassed for purity and patriotism.

Dr. J. G. Holland's Life of Lincoln (page 469, et seq.), shows Fremont, Wendell Phillips, Fred Douglas and Greeley as leaders in the very nearly successful effort to defeat Lincoln's second election. The call for the convention for that purpose, held in Cleveland, May 31, 1864, said that "the public liberty was in danger;" that its ob- ject was to arouse the people "and bring them to realize that, while we are saturating Southern soil with the best blood of the country in the name of liberty, we have really parted with it at home."

McClure's Lincoln, etc., conceding the hostile attitude towards Lincoln of the leading members of the cabinet, says (page 54):

" Outside of the cabinet the leaders were equally discordant, and quite as distrustful of the ability of Lincoln to fill his great office. Sumner, Trumbull, Chandler, Wade, Winter Davis, and the men to whom the nation then turned as the great representative men of the new political power, did not conceal their distrust of Lincoln,